%^ 






^aJt-^ 





g^;^^^:^!:^^ (;::^1^^^^^^^ 



ciE^OYiDOisr, nsr. be., ises 



PROCEEDINGS 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, 



ON WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13, 1866. 



A BRIEF ACCOUNT OF THE LEADING MEN 



OF rnXEi F'lRST CEPfTTJItY, 



yVitli ^oriraits. 



TOGETHER WITH 



OF THE TOWN. 



BY EDMUND WHEELER. 




€lavmont, :N. 3^.: 

PEINTED BY THE CLAEEMONT MANUFACTUEIKG COMPANY. 
1867. 



1= I^ E IP J^ O E . 



It has been the purpose of the editor to gather up in this volume, the 
proceedings at the Croydon Centennial Celebration and embody them in a 
permanent form, for the benefit of all those interested in the town — but 
more especially the very many who were unable to be present — and for 
after generations. 

So far as was within his reach he has endeavored in the Sketches here 
presented to give a brief account of all the leading men of the town 
during the first century. He has aimed to do equal justice to all, and if 
in any instance he has done less it was because the requisite information 
could not be obtained. And for the same reason, doubtless, many others 
equally worthy of honorable mention have been entirely omitted. He can 
only say he has done the best he could. 

For many of the facts contained in the Historical portion of the volume, 
especially the earlier ones, he is under obligations to John Cooper, Esq., 
who has very kindly granted him a free use of his " Historical Sketch." 

In relation to the Illustrations, he has endeavored to induce one at least 
of the descendants of each of the old, prominent families to represent his 
race personally to the next centennial through the medium of a lithograph. 
And his invitation to the one judged to be the representative man of the 
family to make the contribution has in most instances been very promptly 
and generously responded to. He would have liked more of the early 
fathers, but unable to procure them he has given the sons. It is believed 
that the very considerable expense attending them will be more than 
repaid by the additional interest they will impart to the work. 

The editor would here express his obligations to the natives and residents 
of Croydon, for the general sympathy and lively interest manifested in the 
undertaking during its progress. May the result of his labors be the 
means of awakening a thousand pleasant memories. 



CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION, 

June 13, 1866. 



The one hundredth anniversary of the settlement of 
Croydon was celebrated on Wednesday, June 13, 1866. It 
was a jubilee long to be remembered in the annals of 
the town. Invitations had been extended "to all the 
natives and former residents of the town to be present and 
mingle in the festivities of the day." At sunrise the boom- 
ing of the cannon, planted on the very spot where stood the 
first dwelling, echoing and re-echoing among the hills, and 
the merry pealing of the bells announced that the day had 
dawned, summoned all to be in readiness, and awakened 
anew in a thousand hearts a long train of sweet, sad mem- 
ories-joyous when they thought of home, the unbroken 
circle, the innocent sports of childhood, and a mother's love ; 
but sad when they remembered how the destroyer had been 
there and the hearts that once made them so welcome are 
now still in death, and the loved forms are sleeping in the 
valley. 

Long before the hour when the exercises were announced 
to commence, an immense throng, numbering fully three 
thousand persons, had assembled. At 10 o'clock the proces- 
sion was formed under the direction of Capt. Nathan Hall, 
Chief Marshal of the day, and escorted by the Croydon 
■ Band, led by Baldwin Humphrey, marched to the stand. 



Col. Otis Cooper, Chairman of the Committee of 
Arrangements, on calling the assembly to order greeted them 
with the following welcome si^eech. 
Mr. Cooper said : 

Ladies and Gentlemen : In behalf of the citizens of 
Croydon I have the pleasure of bidding you aU a most hearty 
welcome to your dear old native town. I most cordially 
welcome you all to these green fields, these beautiful valleys, 
these charming hills, and these grand old mountains. I 
welcome you to the churches where you once worshiped, the 
school-houses where you were taught, and those sacred 
inclosures where sleep the dear, honored dead. I welcome 
you to your dear old homes, and especially do I welcome 
you to this old family table, which has been so liberally 
provided for by the ladies. 

What though the skies above us are Overcast with clouds, 
all around us is sunsliine, and warmth, and joy. Let us 
then enjoy the greeting, the hand-clasp, and the interchange 
of smiles. Again I welcome you all individually and col 
lectively to all the innocent pleasures which this day is 
capable of affording. 

Ladies and Gentlemen : I now have the pleasure of 
introducing to you the President of the day, the Hon 
William P. Wheeler of Keene. 

The President on taking the stand made the followino- 
remarks : ° 




. s>''^ 



^ s^^^f^.^^.^^^^ 



7 
HO^^. WILLIAM P. WHEELER OF KEEXE. 



Ladies and Gentlemen : 

It was a happy thought on the part of that portion of 
the household abiding here at home, to take note of the 
close of the first hundred years in our family history ; and 
to mark the transit from the old to the new century by a 
holiday at the old homestead. And it was .especially kind 
and thoughtful of them to recall, on the occasion, those 
members of the Croydon family who from necessity or choice 
have been drawn to other fields of labor. That they have 
come with alacrity and in full force, is sufficiently evinced 
bv what we here see. Some have come with increased 
households ; while others whom we would gladly have wel- 
comed, have recently passed beyond the reach of an earth- 
Iv summons. Yet while we grieve for those who for the 
present seem to be lost to us, we may mingle our congratu- 
lations ; and unite in commemorating what the first centu- 
ry has wrought for us. 

We are here to-day upon a stand-point where three gen- 
erations are to pass in review before us. Their work is 
finished, but the lesson therein taught, remains to us and 
to our children. And this day will not be lost if our minds 
are refreshed, and stimulated to higher action in the future, 
by what is most noble and heroic in the past. The dead 
century is before us. Its history can not be changed. Let 
us listen reverently to its teachings. The living century is 



8 

already beginning to unfold. Who will say that a recital 
of what was suffered and achieved by the early fathers and 
mothers, may not animate us with a spirit which shall leave 
its impress on another generation ? Let us to-day rekindle 
the fires of patriotism on the altar of our forefathers. 

The wanderers have gathered at their native home to- 
day, because it was not in their hearts to resist the kindly 
summons. They are here to renew ancient friendships, to 
listen again to voices once familiar to them, and to look 
once more upon the face of nature as she greeted them in 
childhood. Here truly are the streams and lakes, the hills 
and valleys of our early days, unchanged by the lapse of 
time. And the grand old mountain, with its dark forests, 
still looks down upon us as of yore. Our country boasts of 
mountain peaks which attract pilgrims from distant lands, 
but I have seen none which can for a moment compare 
with the familiar one under whose shadow we now stand. 
There may be little to attract to it the eye of the stranger ; 
but every true son of Croydon can testify that " the sacred 
mountains " are those upon which the eye was accustomed 
to rest in childhood. 

The strong love which involuntarily attaches one to the 
home of his youth may not be easy of analysis ; but it is a 
fact everywhere existing and recognized. It is but slightly 
dependent upon outward circumstances. The humble cot- 
tage in the forest, or upon the bleak mountain side, has 
attractions not surpassed by the lordly mansions of wealth 
and luxury. The place of one's birth is not less dear be- 
cause it is humble : and the memory of it is not effaced by 
time or worldly cares. You may immerse one in business 
or pleasure until his time and all his waking thoughts are 



wholly absorbed in the present. Nature is still true to her- 
self. There will be moments in that life, if at no other 
time, in his slumbers, in the quiet hours of night, when 
the visions of childhood and of the early home will return. 
Again the brothers and sisters are with him. Again he 
mingles with his youthful playmates. He once more hears 
the voice of his sainted mother ; and he is again the gentle 
and confiding child, unspoiled by the follies and vices of 
after-life. 

The query has sometimes arisen, what is it that entitles 
Croydon to the distinction which she has always claimed 
among her neighbors ? What has given her the position 
which is generally conceded to her ? Her territory is small, 
and her soil in the main unproductive. Her inhabitants are 
few in number ; and her mercantile and manufacturing 
interests are of small account. Her religious privileges have 
not been large, neither her schools numerous nor always of 
the highest order. Yet wherever you meet a Croydon boy, 
young or old, you meet one who is proud of his native 
town. I have met them in the crowded city, and far up 
among the sources of the great rivers of this continent ; 
yet in their new homes I found them the same indomitable, 
hard-working and well-balanced men as those who now 
cultivate these hills and valleys. What then is their true 
claim to distinction ? It is not that they are men of great 
genius or extraordinary acquirements. A few have over- 
come the difficulties in their way, and have obtained a 
liberal education ; while others with less school culture, 
have found positions of honor and usefulness abroad. But 
it is not to these alone, or mainly, that the town owes her 
position. 



10 

All the sources of her strength may not readily be com- 
prehended or stated. But some of them are sufficiently 
obvious. In the first place all accounts agree that the first 
settlers here were men and women of great nerve and 
endurance ; and many of them of unusual size and physical 
strength. They found here a soil and climate which called 
forth their best energies. They breathed a pure and invig- 
orating air. The breezes — not always warm or mild — 
which swept the White or Green Mountains and came 
pouring over the rugged sides of our great mountain barrier, 
brought with them health and mental soundness. 

Thus from a noble ancestry, early accustomed to struggle 
with Nature in her sterner moods, and to take an active 
part in public aifairs in the stirring times in which they 
lived, a race of men has been trained and developed who 
still uphold the honor and dignity of their native town. As 
we have seen them in the present generation, they have 
appeared to be men, not perhaps in all cases over-devotional 
or religious, but self-reliant and ready for work ; men of 
integrity who could compete successfully with their neigh- 
bors or rivals in whatever business or profession they were 
engaged. Many of them still retain the stalwart forms of 
their ancestors. The original types of the Bartons, Coopers, 
Halls, Humphreys, Powers, Putnams, Whipples, and their 
compeers of a century ago, have not wholly disappeared. 
And it is to be hoped that those who assemble here at the 
close of another century may find among them the physical 
and mental peculiarities of those who began their work here 
in 1766. 

As a township Croydon has, from the beginning, been out- 
stripped by her more prosperous neighbors. To say nothing 



11 

of other flourishing towns about us, Claremont and New- 
port, with their water-power and broad acres of interval, 
have grown in wealth and population until they may look 
upon this little community as a humble tributary to the 
stream of their prosperity. But Croydon points to her 
sons and daughters — not supposed to be numerous until 
to-day — as the tower of her strength ; and claims equality 
of rank. ^ 

We hope on this occasion to hear something of the history 
of the founders of this town ; and of the later generations who 
have borne an honorable part in all our great struggles. In 
the war of the revolution Croydon sent her full share of men 
of strong arms and resolute wills, to battle for independence. 
The sacrifices which were made to achieve what we have 
so recently been called upon to defend — our national unity 
and independence — never seemed greater to me than when, 
as a boy, I listened to the recitals of my venerable grand- 
father, Nathaniel Wheeler, senior, of the toils and privations 
endured by him and his companions in arms, and their 
families, during the dark days of the revolution. Truly, 
there was no lack of patriotism on the part of the man who 
could, at the call of his country, march to the field of battle, 
while he left behind him in the wilderness his wife and 
infant children, dependent upon the good will of the neigh- 
bors to scare the wild beasts from the cabin door, and to 
cultivate the patch of cleared ground which was to furnish 
the scanty supply of bread for hungry mouths. Yet we have 
the concurrent testimony of many, that such instances were 
not rare in the early history of this town. 

In the second war with Great Britain Croydon sustained 
her part nobly ; and I count it a thing to be proud of, that 



12 

when a call was made upon the town for soldiers, the pro- 
ceedings commenced for a draft were at once set aside by 
the voluntary enlistment of its citizens ; and that the first 
man to offer himself as a private soldier for the service, was 
Nathaniel Wheeler, jr., then holding a high commission in 
the State militia. And in the terrible ordeal through which 
our beloved country has just passed, and from which she is 
rising, purified, we trust, as by fire, it was not inappropriate 
that a later descendant of the same family should surrender 
up his life, far from kindred and home, at the call of his 
country. But the history of one family is the history of 
many ; and I would not give an undue prominence to the 
services of one, while so many family records have been 
illuminated by the noble deeds of more than one generation. 
Let us, at the risk of being egotistic, tell what we know of our 
fathers that is worthy of record ; what we are doing or 
striving for ourselves, and what we hope of our children. 
Then will this be a day long to be remembered by the sons 
and daughters of Croydon. 

A very able and appropriate prayer was then offered by 
Rev. Luther J. Fletcher of Maine. 

The following Greeting Hymn, written for the occasion 
by Lizzie P. Harding of Croydon, was sung by the Glee 
Club, led by Capt. E. Darwin Comings : 



13 
GREETING HYMN. 



We welcome thee ! we welcome thee 

"Who long from us have strayed, 
With joy we grasp the hand where oft 

In childhood thou hast played. 

Our granite hills unchanged shall stand, 

Though distant ye may roam ; 
Like them our hearts remain as true, 

And kindly greet thee home. 

But there are voices, hushed in death, 

Whose tones in other years 
Rang out with friendship's sweetest notes 

Upon our ravished ears. 

Behold them ! bending from the skies 

To watch thy coming feet, 
List'ning to catch our song of joy, 

With memory's incense sweet. 

Great God ! guide thou our wandering steps, 

To reach that blissful shore. 
Where loved ones wait, with star-gemmed crowns, 

To greet us evernftire. 



Then welcome, welcome dearest friends, 
Who from us long have strayed, 

With joy we clasp thy hand where oft 
In childhood thou hast played. 



The President. — I am not unmindful of the one great 
attraction which has brought you here to-day. You have 
come to listen to one who is everywhere heard with pleasure 
and nowhere with more pride and satisfaction than here in 
his native town ; whose presence always calls forth love and 
admiration, and whose eloquent words and blameless life 
have exerted an influence which has been felt in a circle 
wider than has been reached by any other son of Croydon. 
The Rev. Baron Stow, of Boston, who will now address 
you, needs no introduction to this audience. 



14 
BY BAKOTs^ STOW, D. D., OF BOSTON.* 



Hugh Miller of Scotland, says, " The mind of every man 
lias its picture-gallery — scenes of beauty, or magnificence, 
or quiet comfort stamped upon bis memory." And he 
might have added, that often a very small thing, or a very 
trivial incident, will serve as a key to open that gallery, and 
let in the light of day upon long darkened reminiscences. 

Seven years ago about this time, I was in the heart of 
Europe, in Munich, the capital of the kingdom of Bavaria. 
One bright, cloudless afternoon, wearied, with sight-seeing, 
I walked into the countr}'', partly for physical refreshment, 
and partly that I might turn away from the works of 
human art, splendid and beautiful as they were, and con- 
template the richer beauties and. glories of Nature. The 
air was balmy and charged with perfume from fields and 
gardens in full bloom. When far enough away, I ascended 
a knoll and turned to view the landscape. It was one of 
the loveliest. Away at my right, on the slope of a ridge, 
was the famous national monument, the colossal statue of 
Bavaria, towering with its pedestal one hundred feet from 
the ground. Towards my left was the city, the gem of 
continental Europe. In front along the south loomed up 
the serrated range of the Tyrolese Alps, snow-clad, and 
glittering in the sunlight like burnished silver. The whole 
scene was one of blended beauty and grandeur. There was 



* Owing to the rain that greatly incommoded the larger part of the andience, consiilorable 
portions of the Address, as now published, were necessarily omitted in the delivery. 




/O i:Z^<:ri,\^^2!crz^\j-^ 



15 

much to remind me of God, and awaken feelings of adora- 
tion. 

But soon a very small object changed, suddenly and com- 
pletely, the current of thought, and set it running in a new 
direction. Seated on the turf, I noticed at my feet a flower 
which I had familiarly known, in my early childhood, as 
" yellow weed" or "butter cup." I remembered when the 
fields of my native town, in the month of June, were golden 
with its bloom, and how the farmers classed it with the 
" hard-hack" and the " Canada thistle/' as a nuisance nof 
easily abated. I had learned to regard it as a pest, but 
there, in the outskirts of Munich, I did not dislike it ; I 
hailed it as an old acquaintance ; my heart sprang towards 
it ; I read " Croydon" on its every petal ; it was suggestive 
of a hundred fold more than I can now tell. In space, I 
was instantly transported nearly five thousand miles west- 
ward to my New Hampshire home, five degrees more south- 
ward than Munich, yet colder in climate and more rugged 
in scenery. In time, I was taken back nearly sixty years, 
and looking at things as they were when Thomas Jefferson 
was President of the United States, and our Government 
was quarreling, diplomatically, with England about Orders 
in Council, embargoes, and non-intercourse laws ; and when 
Napoleon I. at the zenith of his power, had the sympathy 
of all in our country who wished to see the British Lion 
humbled ; and when party spirit in New Hampshire, Croy- 
don not excepted, was at fever heat. How vivid, how 
minute, were my recollections all revived by the suggestive- 
ness of that little, unpretentious flower ! I stood, once 
more a boy of seven years, in that semicircle of high hills, 
sweeping round from north-east to south-west, with slopes 



16 

partly wooded and partly dotted with small rocky farms, 
and within which lay, not indeed a prairie, but an undulat- 
ing plain, having in its center a dark forest, the haunt of 
night-prowling animals, the terror of the cornfield, the hen- 
roost and the sheepfold. Around that forest were cultivated 
farms, not very productive, but yielding to industry and 
economy support for a hardy yeomanry, not then disturbed 
by visions of better acres in the opening West. Had I 
actually been at the old homestead of Peter Stow, near the 
western border of that black forest, hardly could I have seen 
more distinctly the outline and the filling up of that semi- 
circle, with its encompassing hills, than I then beheld them 
in .the "picture-gallery" of the mind. What then to me 
were the magnificent Alps witli their lofty peaks and deep 
gorges, and their thundering avalanches ? I had before me 
" Croydon Mountain," identified in the memories of child- 
hood with my first ideas of elevation and greatness, and of 
isolation from all that was beyond, a barrier separating 
me, not from classic Italy, but from far off Cornish and 
Grantham. 

It was midsummer in the memory, and the warm blue 
sky was flecked with detached clouds that dappled with 
shade the sunny landscape. The shadows of those clouds, 
moved by the lightest, softest winds, as they passed down 
the mountain side and crossed the plain ; aind the grass and 
grain waving in gentle undulations ; and the smoke curling 
aslant from the chimneys of farm-houses — all these had 
given me, notwithstanding Dr. Darwin's theory, my original 
impressions of natural beauty. Herds and flocks were graz- 
ing quietly in rocky pastures. The atmosphere was loaded 
with fragrance from clover blossoms, white and red, sweeter 



17 

than any perfume from Araby the Blest. No sounds fell 
upon the ear but the music of birds, or the hum of insects, 
or, at the hour of twelve, the housewife's horn calling the 
hungry " men folks" from the field of toil to her prepared 
table ; or, at night-fall, the hoarse cry of the night hawk and 
the inimitable hoot of the " boding owl," both relieved by 
the plaintive notes of the hidden whip-poor-will. And that 
house of my nativity, as innocent of paint as a Croydon 
maiden's face, very small, quite rustic, with few con- 
veniences, yet the palace of an independent lord and his 
wife and four children — how particular were my recollections 
of its exact structure, gable-end to the street ; of its every 
apartment, every article of furniture, every fireplace, door, 
window, stairway ; of the floor and ceiling ; of the cupboard 
and dresser ; of 

" The family Bible that lay on the stand ;" 

yes, and especially of all the inmates, the permanent and 
the -occasional ! 

"Fond Memory, to her duty true, 
Brings back their faded forms to view; 
How lifelike, through the mist of years, 
' Each well-remembered face appears!" 

There was on the one side the wood shed, in one part of 
which was the platform for spinning, quilling, warping, 
weaving, with all the implements of domestic manufactur- 
ing. On the other, through " the stoop," was the well, 
with " crotch," and "sweep," and " pole," and "curb," and 
"old oaken bucket," and crystal water of arctic coolness. 
There was the garden, inclosed by a stone wall, with its 
fringe of currant bushes, and a thrifty nursery, and patches 
of vegetables, and in the center the large granite boulder 
smothered with roses. In the roadwav was a still lartjer 



18 

boulder, the " pulpit rock" of the future preacher. A little 
further down was a brook where cousins of two families met 
and childishly sported. In front of the house was a row of 
Lombardy poplars, tall and luxuriant, never cropped for fagots 
as I have seen them on their native plains in Northern Italy, 
In the rear was the apple orchard, laden with unripened, 
and therefore, forbidden, fruit. At a suitable distance were 
the barns for the storage of farm products, and for the 
housing of " stock." At the foot of a small declivity near 
by was a swamp in which frogs, at certain seasons, gave 
free concerts — batrachian types of certain classes of my own 
species whom I have everywhere met — peepers and croakers. 
The dwellings to be seen from that memorable stand-point 
were few, some of them hung on the sides of the ragged 
hills, far apart, and, but for domestic affections, isolated 
and lonely. I remembered not only the homes, but the 
faces and the employments and the habits and the tempera- 
ments and the reputed characters of all the neighbors 
within the circle of a mile radius. I remembered the low, 
flat-roofed school-house of the district, hidden in a small 
forest nook, fringed with birches and briars ; and the names 
and faces of m}' teachers — Grod bless their precious mem- 
ories — and the name and face of every fellow-pupil. I 
remembered nearly all the roads and fjirms in the town, and 
most of the residences of the nine hundred inhabitants, and 
such family names as Metcalf, Wakefield, Stow, Ward, 
Fletcher, Town, Smart, Carpenter, Rawson, Straight, 
Powers, Goldthwait, Marsh, Frye, Darling, Thresher, 
Walker, Ames, Winter, Barton, Carroll, Putnam, Stock- 
well, Emery, Reed, Cutting, Loverin, Eggleston, Blan- 
chard, Jacobs, Hagar, Wheeler, Crosby, Eastman, Dwinnell, 



19 

Breck, Hall, Kempton, Whipple, Ferrin, Nelson, Partridge^ 
Cooper, Paul, Newell, Eider, Melendy, Haven, Durkee, 
Humphrey, Clement, Sanger ; and of some of these names 
several families. I remembered how common it was to 
reduce discriminating names to convenient, familiar mono- 
syllables, as Sam, Ben, Jock, Tim, Joe, Bije, Ned, Jake, 
Jim, Pete, Sol, Nat, Tom, Nate, Steve, Dave, Josh, Zeke, 
Lem, Eias, Bill, Keub, Mose, Frank ; but I did not recall one 
Sammie, or Bennie, or Eddie, or Willie, or Johnnie, or 
Charlie, or Freddie, or Joey, or Jamie, or Frankie or 
G-eorgie, or Hezzie. Among the girls, not then styled 
young ladies, were Patty, Judy, Tempo, Speedy, Peggy, 
Nabby, Lize, Sukey, Viney, Milly, Betsey, Fanny, Prudy, 
Eoxy, Sally, Polly, Cindy, Listy, Jinny ; but not, as I 
recollect, one Hattie, or Susie, or Nannie, or Josie, or 
Bessie, or Lillie, or Addie, or Tillie, or Celestie, or Lulu, or 
Katie, or Minnie, or Eosie, or Libbie, or Maggie or Carrie. 
Couples were married by priest Haven, not as gentlemen 
and ladies, but as men and women. Father was not '' pa" 
or "papa," but quite generally "dad" or "daddy." Mother 
was not "ma," but " mammy." Brother was not "bubby," 
or sister "sissy." The modern refinements in nomenclature 
and terms of endearment had not then reached so far as 
Croydon, Are they now here ? If they are, do you count 
them improvements ? Do they convey more heart than the 
old styles of familiar address ? 

I remembered the June training, and the one Croydon 
company of militia ; and the muster days, and the thirty- 
first regiment, and its field officers, and its " troopers," and 
" Springfield grenadiers," and its regimental flag, and its 
sham fights, brave and bloodless. I remembered the town 



20 

meetings, and the spelling schools, and the squirrel hunts, 
and the working on the highways, and the house-warmings, 
and the huskings and the quiltings — not all yet as I am 
told, quite obsolete institutions. And I remembered the 
one house of Christian worship, and also the one tavern and 
two stores, the one carding machine and here and there a 
smithery, the one tannery and a few grist and saw-mills. 
But I remembered no lawyer or sheriif — no law officers but 
two justices of the peace and the tything-men, the latter 
the special terror of Sabbath-desecrating boys. Some of 
you, like myself, may recollect those keen-eyed detectives, 
Samuel Metcalf and Sherman Cooper. 
I remembered the burial place, " Grod's Acre," 

•'Where the nide forefathers of the hamlet sleep ;" 

imperfectly inclosed, showing little of the hand of care, 
overgrown with mullens and briers, and far more repulsive 
than attractive. There were grassy mounds and significant 
hollows, and an occasional headstone of blue slate, but not 
one of marble ; and fresh in my memory were names and 
quaint inscriptions, closing with the monitory couplet, 

" Death is a debt to Nature due, 
Which I have paid, aud so must you;" 

or with a fuller statement, 

'■ As you are now, so once was I, 

As I am now, you soon must be ; ' 
Remember, you are born to die; 

Therefore, prepare to follow me." 

Say not that all this was a waking dream or a reverie, for 
it was neither ; it was a simple look into the " j)icture- 
gallery" of the soul, and the key that unlocked the partic- 
ular apartment where the Croydon of my childhood was 
permanently portrayed, was that little flower which had 



21 

done for me what no other of all the flora of Europe could 
have done. The process was rapid. I sat not long on that 
grassy hillock, for the sun was declining, and a cold wind 
was setting in from the frozen Alps, and, plucking that 
suggestive flower, I hastened back to my lodgings. From 
that hour I hoped that you would, in 1866, do what you 
are so effectively doing to-day, and that I might be permit- 
ted to join you in commemorating the worth and the deeds 
of our ancestors who here made the first settlement, and 
commenced for the town the history you are passing in 
review. 

Be assured, Mr. President and fellow-townsmen, I speak 

with intense sincerity ; I count it a special privilege to be 

here to-day. And why should I not ? Though long absent, 

I return with memories fresh and vivid. I am living over 

the first eight years of my varied, eventful life. I have seen 

many parts of the world, the New and the Old ; but no 

spot on either continent, in city or country, is so dear to me 

as my native town. I stop not to analyze this feeling of 

preference ; probably it defies all analysis and explanation ; 

but I know it to be a fixed fact in my being, and only by 

the annihilation of that' being can it be dislodged. My spirit 

is mellow and tender with reminiscences of the place and 

the people as they were when this was my home. What I 

\ have described as lying far back im my memory, is, 1 

presume, but a representative of what is depicted with equal 

clearness in the memories of others. The Wheelers, the 

Metcalfs, the Halls, the Powers, the Whipples, the Havens, 

the Carrolls, the Putnams, and all the rest of you who have 

lived fifty years and more, have your own picture-galleries, 



22 

open to-day and filled with images of the past. You are 
thinking of old homesteads, and parents, and neighbors, and 
the events of your early days. Some of you, natives of 
Croydon, are older than myself, and can remember farther 
back ; but none of you who have been long away, I am sure, 
have returned with a stronger love for our native hills, or a 
heart warmer with gratitude that this was our birth-place, 
or that here we were trained to commence life in earnest. 
I join you fervently in these commemorative services, 
and cordially lay on this altar of reunion my small contri- 
bution. 

Of those who, one hundred years ago, commenced here a 
settlement, all have long since passed away. Since I left 
the town, nearly two generations have come and gone. Were 
the first two children who were born near this spot — Cath- 
arine Whipple and Joshua Chase — now living, they would 
be ninety-nine years old. Very few born in the last century 
are present to-day. As I visit other places where I have 
resided, and inquire for old acquaintances, I am directed to 
the cemeteries. The same would be done, more or less, in 
Croydon ; and yet fewer in number, in proportion to the 
population, have closed their mission here, for more than 
two-thirds of those born here have emigrated, and their 
graves are to be found in many States, all the way from 
the Penobscot to the regions beyond the Father of Waters. 

I remember a few of the pioneers — more especially Moses 
Whipple, the veteran deacon, the man of large heart, and 
upright character, the genial peace-maker, respected and 
beloved by all ; and Ezekiel Powers, the man of large 
bodily proportions, whose inventive faculties and achieve- 



23 

ments of muscular strength and sterling common sense 
made him the hero of many a tradition. The men of the 
first half century were a hardy race, enterprising, adven- 
turous, made robust by toil and exposure, with great powers 
of endurance, and renowned for uncommon triumphs over 
rugged obstacles. Nowhere else have I seen men of such 
physical frames and such executive energies as some whom 
I remember. With what rapt interest and admiration I 
listened, as a child, by the hour to stories of their hardships 
and exploits in land-clearing, river-bridging, road-making, 
house-building, sugar-manufacturing, bear-hunting, otter 
and beaver-trapping, snow-shoe- traveling ! How unpro- 
ductive was often the soil they cultivated ; how unfriendly 
were the late spring and early autumnal frosts ; how 
obstructing were the terrific snow-storms ; how short and 
capricious were their summers, and long and rigorous their 
winters ; how difficult to protect their scanty crops and live 
stock from the depredations of wild beasts ; how coarse and 
often restricted were their means of sustenance ; how 
stringent were their privations during the Eevolutionary 
War ; how great their sufferings from a depreciated cur- 
rency, from the lack of groceries, clothing, and medical 
supplies ! What an unwritten history ! Traditions, once 
fresh and thrilling, how faded already, and soon to be 
wholly forgotten ! Young as I was, I listened eagerly, and 
my memory was charged to repletion with narratives, 
original and second-hand, from my paternal grandmother, 
from Samuel Powers, Sherman Cooper, Aaron Whipple, 
and, may I not add, from that venerable spinster, " aunt 
Lizzie Sanger." I was fond of the captivating detail of 
Jewish, Grecian, Eoman and English history ; but nothing 



24 

that I read struck roots so deeply in my inner being, and 
fixed there so permanent a lodgment, as those oral narratives 
heard by childhood's ear during the long winter evenings 
nearly sixty y^ars ago. Often since have I coveted the 
descriptive powers of those strong-minded stalwart veterans, 
some of whom were actors in the rough scenes they graphi- 
cally portrayed. They had the elements of first-class 
orators. And among those narrated marvels were not a few 
of the heroic achievements of Croydon women, the great- 
grandmothers of many now before me ; of what they effect- 
ively did and bravely suffered, when their husbands, fathers, 
brothers, sons, were away contending for their country's 
independence. I remember some of those women, of 
uncommon brain and muscle, giantesses and the mothers of 
giants ; and few of the sex have I since seen who equaled 
them in strength of intellect and executive accomplishment. ' 
None of them are here ; but memory holds in the " picture- 
gallery" their forms and features and intonations of 
speech. 

Mr. President, by some unaccountable process, I have 
had the misfortune to be announced for an " ovation" on 
this festive occasion. That is what j'-oiir Committee never 
asked of me, and what I never promised or contemplated. 
I am here no more to pronounce an oration than I am to 
preach a sermon. I consented, as one of the speakers, to 
contribute something in the way of reminiscences. Twenty 
years ago, I was more formal in a memorial service at 
Newport, when there was a reunion, not of natives merely, 
but of past and present residents. And, nineteen years 
ago, at Sherburne, Mass., I addressed, in quite another style, 



25 

the descendants of Henry Leland, some of whose posterity, 
at an early period, settled in Croydon. But this is neither 
Newport nor Sherburne ; it is my birthplace, the home of 
my progenitors, full to overflow of the tenderest associations, 
and the affections here burn with an intensity that forbids 
all intellectual elaboration. 

To say much of persons might be deemed invidious ; but 
of a very few I may speak particularly without incurring 
the imputation of partiality. 

Foremost among those remembered, 1 mention Jacob 
Haven, uniformly called " Priest," as were all Congrega- 
tional ministers in this region, while Baptist and Freewill 
Baptist ministers were as uniformly known by the title of 
" Elder." For more than half a century he was prominently 
identified with the history of the town. A native of Fram- 
ingham, Mass., he was here ordained in 1788, and here he 
died in 1845. He was called to the pastorate by the legal 
voters of the town, who determined his salary ; and, being 
the first minister settled, he was the recipient of the share 
of land reserved for that purpose by the grantor. Governor 
Wentworth. In 1805, he ceased to be the minister of the 
town, and became the pastor of such as adhered to him by 
similarity of religious views or affinity of personal feeling, 
and were willing to support him. 

You who are not past forty do not remember the old 
meeting-house, a very plain structure, never finished, and 
too cold to be occupied in the winter. I recollect how the 
plates, beams and king-posts were exposed on the inside. 
The pews were square, with perpendicular partitions, and 
with turn-up seats which, at the close of the " long prayer," 



26 

were let down with a famous clatter, sometimes before the 
"Amen." The seats were imcushioned, the aisles were 
uncarpeted, and many panes in the numerous windows were 
broken. The pulpit, behind Avhich was the royal window, 
was very elevated, and contained a square block for a rest 
to the shorter limb of the Priest as he stood at his work. 
Overhanging was a clumsy " canopy" or " sounding-board." 
Half way up the pulpit, at the first landing, were the 
" Deacon's seats," graced, as I well remember, by such 
worthies as Moses Whipple, Stephen Powers, and Sherman 
Cooper. In the front gallery was the choir of singers, un- 
sustained by organ or seraphine or even a "big fiddle," but 
conducted by Samuel Metcalf, who gave the key-note with 
his pitch-pipe, and then, in unison with the rest, sounded 
out the initial " fa-sol-la-mi-fa." In some of the old fugue 
tunes, 0, how they raced in mazy confusion, all coming out 
nearly together ! At one end of the house was a tower 
surmounted by a belfry, from which never a bell sent its 
peals among these hills. Around the house was a profusion 
of mayweed, milkweed, and huge thistles with fragrant 
blossoms and sharp thorns. In my earlier years, no vehicle 
with wheels ever visited that sanctuary. Some of the 
people went on foot, others on horseback. Now and then 
there was a side-saddle ; but the " pillion" was the more 
common convenience for the women. It was nothing 
unusual for the husband and wife to arrive on one horse, she 
behind bearing an infant in her arms, and he an older child 
upon a pillow on the pommel of the saddle. This various 
burden was conveniently dismounted at the " horse-block." 
In that house, with the exception of the winter months, 
Priest Haven officiated from 1794 to 1826. He was a sood 



27 

preacher, not brilliantly rhetorical, but serious in manner, 
clear in statement, logical in reasoning, and forcible in 
appeal. A few weeks since, a gentleman from this vicinity, 
speaking of a lady of this town, said to me that she was 
" the most intelligible lady in Croydon." It was not exactly 
the compliment he intended ; but of Priest Haven it was 
true that he was both intelligible and intelligent. He made 
himself understood. That he was impressive, I have occasion 
to know, for I remember well a sermon I heard him deliver 
more than fifty years ago, on a communion day, from the 
words, ^'' I loill wash mine hands in innocency ; so loill I 
compass thine altar, Lord" He never had a liberal 
salary. When settled, the town voted him forty pounds, to 
be increased, in certain contingences, to sixty pounds ; " the 
sum to be paid in neat stock, equal to good grass-fed beef, 
at twenty shillings per hundred weight, or good rye at four 
shillings per bushel." He manifested a deep interest in the 
schools, and was an earnest promoter of all efforts to 
improve the morals of tlie town. He solemnized, for a long 
period, nearly all the marriages, and officiated at nearly all 
the funerals ; but he never grew rich by the compensation 
for such services, any more than by his scanty salary. For 
thirty-two years he was Town Clerk, and few municipal 
records will more creditably bear inspection. He died 
beloved and lamented. 

I remember only one physician — Reuben Carroll — who 
practiced here forty-seven years, and had largely the confi- 
dence of the people. His personal appearance, and his 
figure on horseback, are distinct in my memory ; yes, and 
those large black saddle-bags, redolent of odors not all from 
Cashmere or Damascus. His physiognomy was peculiar, 



28 

intensely medical, and, in my simplicity, I inferred that the 
configuration of his facial muscles was influenced by his 
smelling his own drugs. He was physician, surgeon and 
apothecary, with a varied but not very lucrative practice. 
One cold winter day, as I returned from school, I was 
informed that I had a little brother in the house. Though 
less than five years old, I loved knowledge, and earnestly 
inquired as to the origin of the important stranger. My 
grandmother, who was sometimes a little waggish, for she 
was a Powers, bantered me with evasive answers. Not to 
be foiled, I pressed my inquiry, and she then told me, " Dr. 
Carroll brought him." Well, that was, for the time being, 
satisfactory, for it was definitive, and I had at once a solution 
of the mystery as to the required capacity of those odorifer- 
ous saddle-bags. How wise was I in my reasoning that Dr. 
Carroll kept a supply of the little folks ready-made, and 
dispensed them about town, wherever wanted. 

Let me mention one other individual who has a large 
place in my recollections — the negro, Scipio Page, always 
on hand at town meetings and military trainings, grand 
caterer for the appetites of all who would pay their coppers 
for fruits, cakes and pastry. He was dismally black as if 
right from Congo, and his name was freely used in family 
discipline. " Old Scip will catch you," was the climax of 
threats to refractory children, and planted in many a mind 
a prejudice against color that was all but ineradicable. 
Keally, " Old Scip" was one of the most harmless of men, 
doing what many of his despisers did not — honestly earning 
his own bread, and minding his own business. 

I remember the schools as few, and not of a very high or- 
der. How well do I recollect one, with short terms, summer 



29 

and winter, and with Vasliti Hagar and Ezra Gnstin as 
teachers — the former still living, in Illinois, and, at the age 
of eighty-one, a correspondent whom I value for her deep 
piety and vigorous good sense. The prejudice here against 
education, more advanced than the product of common 
schools, was almost universal, and a desire for more was set 
down to the account of indolence or misdirected ambition. 
The boy who ventured to look towards a College, decHned at 
once in position among his fellows. 

The only public work of those days w^as the Croydon 
Turnpike, and I remember how the share-holders, many of 
whom worked out their subscriptions to the stock by build- 
ing each a section of the road, and who were promised large 
dividends, received their income mostly in the shape of 
assessments for repairs and the support of turnpike gates. 

The politics of the town were then strongly Democratic, 
of the Jeffersonian type, and party-spirit acrimoniously 
divided the men, women and children. I had an aunt, 
living with one of the meekest of husbands in yonder house, 
who could talk on public affairs more intelligently and 
smartly than some of the men whom we now send to 
Washington. 

As we had no mails, newspapers were brought weekly by 
post-riders from Concord and Walpole ; and, though few 
were taken, they were read with avidity, and loaned from 
hand to hand, and their contents were talked over at Edward 
Hall's and James Breck's stores, and Benjamin Barton's 
tavern, and sometimes at "intermissions" of Sabbath 
services. 

The first settlers were chiefly from Worcester County, 
Mass., and were decidedly, stringently puritanical. Tradi- 



30 

tion has brought down many a fact, showing how severely 
conscientious they were in the observance of the Sabbath, 
and all this while they had no church, no minister, no gath- 
ering place for Christian worship. But most certainly the 
next generation, as I knew it, was more lax in morals. 
Keligious dissensions and political bitterness had their influ- 
ence in the deteriorating process ; but the copious influx 
and fearful consumption of New England rum did far more 
in the work of degeneracy. Terrible was the havoc made 
by that fiery agent among the bodies, minds, morals and 
estates of the population. Some of you remember those 
days of declining industry, mortgaged farms, absconding 
debtors, and deplorable indifference to the Sabbath and 
Christian proprieties. Many vices, such as horse-racing, 
gambling, licentiousness, were among the natural concom- 
itants of the radical evil. But, in the third generation, 
there was happily a change in the habits of the people ; the 
temperance reform wrought beneficent transformations ; and 
the favorable result was seen in their persons and their 
manners, in their dwellings and their farms — in the general 
aspect of the town both physical and moral. What may 
now be the condition of things, I am incompetent to speak ; 
but I look to-day with delight upon your countenances, so 
difi'erent from many that I remember, inflamed, bloated, 
scarred with the furnace-fires of imbibed alcohol. God 
bless you all my relatives and friends, and mercifully pre- 
serve you from another such volcanic devastation ! 

But I must not trespass upon time that belongs to others. 
The representatives of many families are present, and their 
reminiscences must be as full and as interesting as my own. 
We are here after a long separation, that we may have one 



31 

earthly reunion, and bring together the treasures of quick- 
ened memories ; and especially that we may garland the 
graves of the intrepid few who, on these hill-sides and along 
these water-courses, laid good foundations for the thrift of 
their successors. I have, done what I could. You may do 
immensely better. 

What now of the future ? Three generations have 
passed away. What shall be the character and achieve- 
ments of the next three ? Who will gather here, in 1966, 
and rehearse the story of two centuries ? Long ere that 
second centennial, we shall all have joined the congregation 
of the departed, and our dust will repose in stillness as now 
reposes the dust of our revered ancestors. May we so live, 
and so fulfill the trusts of life, as that we may have a joyous 
reunion in the Better Land. 



After the Address, and music by the Band, the procession 
was again formed under the direction of the Chief Marshal 
and escorted to the table, which had been bountifully spread 
by the people of the town, and was free to all. The Divine 
blessing was invoked by the Rev. C. M. Dinsmore, of New- 
port, and more than two thousand persons partook of the 
repast. The table, some thousand feet in length, was 
divided into seven sections. One section was entirely pro- 
vided for by the liberality of the Hon. Lemuel P. Cooper, 
and was most tastefully arranged and decorated by the 
ladies of his household. On its center was " a fatted calf," 
roasted whole. The town had been divided into six districts, 
and as each district was to furnish one section of the table, 
there arose, at once, a generous rivalry, as to which should 
surpass the other in the amount and excellence of its sup- 
plies and the beauty of its ornaments, and the result was 



32 

most happj^ and alike honorable to the liberality and taste 
of the town. When all had been fed, many a basket was 
taken away unopened. 

After dinner the procession was re-formed and marched 
back to the stand. The assembly was called to order and 
listened to music by the band. 

The President. — Althousjh much has been done since 
we left the stand, there are things yet to be said to which 
you will be glad to listen. I see before me one belonging to 
what is supposed to be the talking fraternity, with whose 
voice and manly proportions I have long been familiar in the 
Court-Room, and who, I doubt not, can say something out 
of doors. We expect to hear from the Bartons and Pow- 
ers in combination and separately ; and first in combination, 
I now call for a speech from Levi W. Barton, Esq., of 
Newport. 

Mr. Barton said : 

Mr. President : I could wish. Sir, that you had called 
upon some other son of Croydon to speak, at this time, in 
my stead. The entertainment from which we have just re- 
turned, which has so generously contributed to our physical 
comfort, has but poorly fitted me to take a part, however 
humble, in the exercises in which we are now to engage. 
Besides, Sir, the scene before me, the remembrance of for- 
mer days, and the sacred memories of the past, have so 
wrought upon my feelings, that my tongue falters, and my 
eyes are in full sympathy with the weeping clouds over us. 
Gladly would I sit in silence, and yield myself to the re- 
flections which the hour suggests. Though belonging to the 
" speaking fraternity," as you have announced, I confess, 




C^^^^^i^^^?^' 



33 

Sir, that my best selected words are all too poor to express 
the deep emotion of my heart. Before me are the sons and 
daughters of my own native town, who scattered by the 
events of life have come back to \'isit the place of their birth 
and the home of their childhood. Yes, like pilgrims we 
have come back with our wives, children and friends, to en- 
joy mutual congratulations, and share with each other the 
sacred associations of a place made dear to us by a thousand 
tender recollections. 

Many of us are standing upon the play-ground of our 
childhood. Here was the arena of athletic sports — of ex- 
citing games and innocent amusements. How distinct the 
remembrance — how fond the recollections. Around us, on 
all sides, are the dear old hills and valleys — fond remembran- 
ces of by-gone pleasures, for here we cherished many a 
pleasant dream of life, all unmindful of life's thorny road. 
Before us is the old, familiar river, along whose banks we 
so often roamed and in whose waters we have so often sport- 
ed. Yonder is the spot where stood the old village school- 
house, around which clusters the most interesting and abid- 
ing recollections. Beyond stands the same old wood, still 
vocal with the sweet carol of the forest bird, which so de- 
lighted our ear in school-boy days. How sweet in the warm 
summer days was the water which gushed, cool and spark- 
ling from yonder hill-side. How beautiful from the rocky 
summit above was the view below of the meandering river, 
the placid ponds where grew the pure, sweet-scented lily, 
the rich green meadows, and beyond all, my own sunny 
home ; where with brothers and sisters I was watched over 
and cared for by my then youthful but now aged mother. 
You will pardon me, if I say that around all these haunts 



34 

of childhood there seemed to linger a brighter halo of light 
than shines upon any other spot which my eye has ever 
beheld. With the feeling which prompted the beautiful 
sentiment of the poet, I would say : 

" How clear to my heart are the scenes of my childhood 
\yhen fond recollection presents them to view." 

But not all to whom these scenes and haunts are familiar 
are permitted to see this historic day. Many have fallen in 
their various fields of labor, far away from their early home ; 
others have here fainted by the way, and yonder church- 
yard holds their sacred dust. 

But I am carried back to the storied past. Standing at a 
century-point from the settlement of the town I seem to see 
in panoramic view the scenes and events of those early days. 
One hundred years have passed away since our ancestors 
— those hardy pioneers of civilization — sought homes in the 
unbroken wilderness where now we see smiling fields, and 
cultivated farms. We seem to see them now, as they grap- 
pled manfully and resolutely with the hardships of pioneer life. 
No exposure, no danger or privation could detain them from 
the accomplishment of their high purpose. Relying upon the 
God of their fathers, they were hopeful amidst discourage- 
ments, and " patient in tribulation." They were of the Puri- 
tan stock and inherited thein love of justice, their devotion 
to principle and their contempt of toil and danger. Such men 
were Whipple, Chase, Warren, Leland, Powers and others, 
Avho one century ago laid the foundation of this town. 
They yielded up the endearments of homes and the associa- 
tions of friends, to receive in exchange the hardships and 
privations incident to a new settlement. No friendly voice 
o-reeted their arrival, no kind hand was outstretched for 
their relief The damp earth was their couch, the overhang- 



35 

ing branches of the trees their only roof. The woodman's 
axe soon breaks the silence of the dense old forest. Soon 
the curling smoke of the rude log cabin is seen to rise above 
the tree-tops. Years of privation followed in which, though 
deprived of most of the physical comforts of life, they were 
not unmindful of the true element of a permanent prosper- 
ity. Here the church was erected, within the rude but con- 
secrated walls of which devout prayer and praise arose from 
hearts of humble worshipers. Here, too, they erected the 
school-house — the auxiliary of the Church and the nursery 
of a true republican state. Thus did our fathers plant a 
wild, uncultivated wilderness with Christian homes, Chris- 
tian churches, and common schools. 

But the early settlers of Croydon were not more devoted 
to their religious and moral obligations than to their claims 
of country and the civil rights of man. From the battle of 
Lexington to the close of the war of independence, her 
sons went promptly forth to battle for home and country. 
Then, as in the war for the preservation of the Union, her 
sons were found where duty called. She has never tolerated 
tories and traitors upon her soil. How valuable the legacy 
which has been bequeathed to us. How great our obliga- 
tion to transmit it to posterity. This day forms a connect- 
ing link between the past century, with all its sorrows and 
joys, its sad recollections and sacred memories, and the com- 
ing century with all its hopes of good and bright anticipa- 
tions. By the veneration we entertain for our fathers — by 
the love we have for posterity not less than a due regard for 
our own welfare — we are admonished that we occupy positions 
of grave responsibility. The influence of individual life 
extends far beyond the limits of our earthly career. The 



36 

condition of generations which are to follow ns depends in 
no small degree upon the acts we do and the lives we live. 
How fit the occasion for high and noble resolutions. Let us 
see to it that posterity have no occasion to reproach us, and 
that when they shall meet, as we do to-day, to mark anoth- 
er century in the history of our town, they may be able to 
refer to our record, as we do to that of our fathers, with feel- 
ings of pride and veneration. May we then be counted 
faithful guardians and worthy stewards of the trust commit- 
ted to us. 

May this day form a golden link in friendship's chain, 
binding us by the sweet influence of association to each 
other and to our native town. But, Mr. President, I am 
fearful I have spoken too long and trespassed on time which 
properly belongs to others. My friends, in conclusion let 
me say, that you have heard, though imperfectly I confess, 
from the " Bartons and Powerses in combination," I trust 
that you will not judge of the standing and strength of my 
maternal or paternal ancestors, by this hasty and immature 
effort of mine. They deserve to be judged by a higher 
standard. Their history is interwoven most closely with 
the history of the town, from its earliest days. I trust I 
shall not be charged with invidious boasting if I claim for 
them, as families, a somewhat leading position in the vari- 
ous walks of social and civil life. To say that they had 
faults is but to proclaim their common humanity. 

Let us, their descendants, avoid their errors and emulate 
their virtues, for in no way can we honor them so much as 
by excelling them in virtue. 

In closing, allow me to present to the assembly the fol- 
lowing sentiment : 




■ugc<J 



mn^^ L/t'-i^ 





37 



John Cooper, the Historian of Croydon : While endeav- 
oring to rescue the names and deeds of his ancestors from 
oblivion, he has secured his own immortality. 

The President. — The weather does not seem propitious 
for the muses this afternoon; but Croydon Poets are irre- 
pressible. You will listen to a Centennial Poem prepared 
for the occasion by Mrs. Augusta Cooper Bristol, of 
Illinois. 

The following Poem was then read and sung by the Glee 
Club : 



No power has made secure or fast, 
The sepulchre with portal vast, 
That opens on the buried Past. 

And Poesj^ puts forth her hand, 

And group by group, and band by band, 

The dead years rise at her command. 

Not freezing specters, chill and numb, 
Nor ghostly shadows, dim and dumb ; — 
But crowned and glorified they come. 

Their step a song, their march a rhyme, 
Along the grand arcade of Time, 
The century-children tower sublime. 

Titans, majestically tall, 

The ancient years rise first of all. 

In answer to my poet call. 

Giants of sternest hardihood, 

They cleave a pathway rough and rude, 

Defeating wrong, achieving good. 

Where Nature all unconquered stands. 
They lift their iron-sinewed hands. 
And train her meek to their commands. 

Severely brave, because so pure, 
They fail not. Victory is sure ! 
They grapple, conquer, and secure ! 

Their code confronts Oppression's rod ! — 
" All men are kings upon the sod. 
Heaven-vested ! Only God is God!" 



38 



They are unto themselves reward ; 
They hold the beauty of accord, 
Aud theirs the secret of the Lord. 

They pass ; — and still a later throng 
Of century-children sweep along, 
Urged by the miracle of song. 

These bring the balmy bud of Peace ; 
Their calm eyes hold a blessed lease 
Of homely comfort and increase. 

Sweet counterparts, in Time's refrain, 
They round the rich crescendo strain 
Of Plenty, Industry, and Gain. 

And Art ignores her doubtful pause, 
And Science, trusty vassal, draws 
The veil from Nature's cryptic laws. 

For them Contentment wreaths her vine, ■ 
Aud floods them with auroral shine. 
As slow they vanish, — line by line. 

And following them, the immortal few, — 
Last in the century review, — 
Move down the spirit avenue. 

The Christs among the ages ! Lo, 
The carmine drips across the snow 
Of their pure vesture as they go ! 

And all the blood-drops, purple-ripe, 
And every symbol stain and stripe, 
Divinest meanings stereotype. 

Their God-thought blossoms into deed ; 
Freedom and brotherhood their creed, 
To right all human wrong and need. 

They thunder at the monarch's gate, 

" One throne alone 's inviolate ! — 

The White Throne where the angels wait." 

Around Oppression's grave they chant 

Their hallelujahs jubilant, 

Till earth and heaven are reboant. 

Their martyr-brows are aureate 

With thought. Their lifted eyes dilate 

With visions of man's ultimate. 

Sublimest of the century name. 
They pass enwrapt in spirit flame. 
And fade all-glorious as they came. 



39 



Divinely wrought, and mission true, 
Far in the silence and the blue. 
Fades out the hundred-year review. 

Oh raise for them a pean free, 
My friends to-day ! for unto thee 
They leave a royal legacy. 

A power to smite Injustice down ; 
To give to Freedom's brow the crown, 
Though kings demur and tyrants frown. 

A will all human woe to heed. 
To seize ide.al thought at need, 
And crystalize it into deed. 

A hope to fill the heart with song, 

Though Right should seem eclipsed by Wrong, 

And life engloomed with shadows long. 

A consciousness untrained and free, 
That spheres what Reason cannot see ! — 
Feels God through self-divinity. 

And best of all the precious dower, 
The cheerful spirit-will and power, 
That waits on duty, hour by hour. 

Oh, close to all the heart reveres, 
Our royal legacy adheres — 
Bequeathment of a hundred years ! 

May the Almighty's record-page. 
Prove that the heirs of such an age 
Were worthy of their heritage. 

Then raise a pean full and free. 
And in the sweets of jubilee 
Embalm the dear old "Century. 



The President.— You will next listen to a voice which 
comes back to us from the Empire State,— a man in whom, 
if reports be true, are combined great professional skill 
and princely munificence. When a son of Dea. Sherman 
Cooper speaks, you will all delight to listen. I call upon 
Dr. William F. Coopeu, of New York, for a speech. 

Mr Cooper responded as follows : 



40 

Mr. President, Gentlemen and Ladies : 

I did not know that I was expected to speak on this 
occasion till since my arrival. I am not used to speaking 
in public, the last forty years of my life having been spent 
in the sick-room, where the hushed voice and muffled step 
have ill prepared me to appear before this vast assembly. 
But, after an absence of thirty-nine years, I am glad to re- 
visit the town of my birth and the place of my boyhood ; 
and I am gratified that so many of my fellow-townsmen 
and their descendants have given me and those that I have 
brought with me so cordial a reception. 

I went out from you in my strength; I have returned to 
you in my weakness. I went to a section of country where 
are no mountains ; nor are there any rocks except of second- 
ary formation. Your mountains and your vast bowlders of 
granite awaken in me feelings of sublimity and grandeur at 
the power of the Creator. Though your mountains and 
rocks remain much the same, how altered are the inhab- 
itants since I left you, and what vacancies do I see in the 
crowd around me ! I fail to see the manly form and counte- 
nance of Abijah Powers, and the firm, military step of 
Samuel Powers. I fail to see those Revolutionary patriots, 
who composed the heads of so many families. They were 
men that left their homes in the depth of winter, and 
marched on snow-shoes, under Arnold, amid cold and starv- 
ation, into Canada. 1 fail to see the noble men who, when 
one-half of the men in town, capable of bearing arms, were 
called for to stop the progress of Gen. Burgoyne and his 
well-drilled army in their march from Canada to Albany, 
responded to the call, met and routed the enemy at Benning- 
ton, and afterwards at Saratoga, capturing the General and 



41 

his wliole army, and tliereby forever rendering those battle- 
fields classic ground. 

Eemember, Mr. President, that only ten years had elapsed 
after the first settler had found his way to Croydon, before 
the storm of the Kevolution swept over the scattered settle- 
ment. Where can another lot of such self-sacrificing men 
be found ? Your rugged soil and mountain air were well 
calculated to make patriots — to make men; and well did 
they fulfill their mission. But those patriots are all gone. 
Not one remains to tell us, as they often did on training and 
" election" days, of the hardships and suiferings which they 
went through, and of their love of General Washington. 

Mr. President : I have visited the first cemetery of this 
town; and I have visited the last one. There I saw the 
resting place, and read the epitaphs of your ancestors and 
mine. I went alone — the most fitting way of visiting the 
"City of the Dead." There I saw the grave of the first 
one born in town. There I saw the graves of my school- 
mates, the companions of my boyhood. There I saw the 
resting place of my parents, whom I left in health, as I 
went to seek my fortune amongst strangers. They lived to 
a good old age, and their deaths were regretted by the com- 
munity in which they lived. In these grave-yards sleej) 
those who cleared up this rugged town, established these 
schools and churches, and laid the foundation of all that is 
calculated to make true men and women of all within the 
hearing of my voice. There those sleepers must lie till the 
morn of the resurrection. And, Mr. President, is it not a 
thought calculated to make us better men and women, that 
the next Centennial Anniversary will find this vast crowd of 
living faces asleep with their fathers ? 



42 

Mr. President : I feel like indulging in some reminis- 
cences of my own early personal history. Here I was born; 
here in your midst I went in and out; and here my character 
was formed — for good or for bad. You are my witnesses 
that after the strictest sect I was brought up a Pharisee. 
I visited yesterday the place where I attended the district 
school. The house was gone, but the foundation was there. 
It carried me back to the years of my boyhood, when Carl- 
ton Barton kept the school winter after winter. The stove- 
pipe that ran up almost perpendicularly, was oval in shape 
and as large as my body. The house being poorly lighted, 
the area behind the stove was usually too dark to be used 
for study or recitation. There I often went to warm myself 
and contrive to make the other scholars laugh. The teacher 
would call them up and punish them, while I always escaped 
punishment — except in a single instance. A man by the 
name of Wood once taught the school. He saw me making 
faces at him, and pounced upon me so suddenly, that I was 
much frightened. Although the school-house is gone, the 
stream of water which ran beside it is there still ; and the 
furrows which the stream in past ages had worn in running 
over the granite ledge, are also there. There we used to go 
and drink the running water in summer — and many a time 
have I cut the silver weed stems that were hollow, and gave 
them to the pretty girls, for them to put in their mouths 
and draw up drink. I have no recollection of ever getting 
any for the boys. 

The white birch is also gone. It was a crotched tree, 
the crotch having been used by me for a pulpit. There I used 
to sit and act as minister to a little flock of girls and boys 
that would gather around me during the noonings. They 



43 

would sing, and I would pray and preach. Those days, I 
now know, were my happiest days. I was then looking 
forward to better days, but I have never seen them. 

Mr. President : As I stand on this platform, I see the 
familiar river that meanders through the meadow a few rods 
before me. It brings vividly to my recollection an incident 
of my first love. I was then ten years old, being about the 
same age of Patty Winter, my lady-love. We used to attend 
the same school ; and we read, and spelled and played together. 
She wore a red dress, and was thought by me to be a little 
angel. Mr. Durkee, one of our neighbors, had hay dry enough 
to be put in the barn — and there were signs of rain. The 
neighbors were called upon for help; and I, a ten years old 
boy, was required to rake after the cart. Being a warm day, 
James Powers sent to Captain Whipple's distillery and got 
some potato whisky. They all drank, and gave to me. 
Having never tasted anything of the kind before, I drank 
because others drank. The consequence was that I soon 
became drunk; and, as I was raking on the bank of the 
river, I fell in, and was nearly drowned. I was rescued by 
Obed Whipple; and after I got over strangling so that I 
could speak, my first words were, " Don't tell Patty Winter." 
So you see, gentlemen and ladies, that my love for the fair 
sex, at that innocent age, was stronger than for either earth 
or heaven. And there are some of my neighbors standing 
here, that can tell you if in that respect any change has 
taken place in me since. 

Mr. President : I will draw my remarks to a close, as 
others are to follow me. But, before retiring, I wish to 
speak of the deep religious principles of some of the early 
settlers of this town, and of their strict adherence both to 



44 

the letter and spirit of the Bible. Perhaps I cannot better 
illustrate these than by citing the case of Ezekiel Powers, as 
a representative man of the first settlers of Croydon. Some 
years after the first settlement, a minister by the name of 
Ballard came into town, gathered a church, and established 
rules for the guidance of members and the government of 
the church. One rule made it the duty of church-members 
to keep the Sabbath day holy, and have their children do 
the same. It was, in an especial manner, enjoined on par- 
ents to prohibit their sons from going a courting, and their 
daughters from having sparks, as they were called, on Sun- 
day nights. Another ordinance passed by the church was, 
that if a parent could not make his children obey him after 
suitable admonition and correction, he was to report them to 
the church, where by a vote they were to be " thrown over 
to the buffetings of satan." 

Ezekiel Powers, on his return from the meeting in which 
these ordinances were passed, called his family around him, 
and told them of the ordinances of the church. Being an 
indulgent parent, he told them that they should be indulged 
in anything not forbidden in the Bible; but his commands 
and the rules and regulations of the church must be obeyed. 
He closed the interview with prayer — praying that the Lord 
would cause his children to obey. But his oldest son Ezekiel, 
sixteen years of age, went that same night a courting, and 
did not return home till the family were at breakfast. As 
he entered the room on Monday morning, his father seized 
him by the collar, cuifed and shook him, and whipped him 
severely, telling him at the conclusion, that if he ever trans- 
gressed in the same way again, he would double the chas- 
tisement. But the son told his father that he should go as 



45 

often as he "had a mind to." The flither then thought 
that he had discharged his duty. Accordingly the next 
Sabbath, after brother Ballard had closed his sermon, 
Ezekiel Powers arose — his manly form of six feet towering 
above the congregation — and, with tears streaming down his 
face, said to the brethren and sisters : "I arise to perform a 
painful duty to my family, to the church, and to my God. 
My beloved son Ezekiel proves incorrigible, and went a 
courting Sunday night; and, however it distresses me to say 
it, I consent by a vote to heave him over to the buffetings 
of satan." Ezra Cooper, one of the brethren present, arose 
about half way up, and, with his arms extended horizontally 
before him said, " Heave my son Jonathan over with him," 
— he having a son of that name, who went a courting the 
Sunday night before. 

It only remains for me, gentlemen and ladies, to thank 
you for the hospitality with which you have welcomed your 
returned sons and daughters. I feel proud of Croydon, the 
town of my birth. All that I am or ever expect to be, 
rests on the foundation begun, laid and finished here. I 
feel proud of the ladies that have furnished the tables with 
such taste and elegance; and I feel proud that the ladies 
have such good husbands, brothers and sons who have 
provided so bountifully to fill the tables to overflowing. 
Finally, I feel proud that I was born in this town. Mr. 
President, I feel proud that the talented Leland, the manly 
Powers, and the honest Cooper blood runs in my veins. 
And, when I see this vast multitude, the product of this 
small town, I feel proud of you all, that you have obeyed 
the first and great command of the Bible, " Multiply and 
replenish the earth." 



46 

The President. — I have the pleasure of introducing to 
this audience a descendant of Moses Whipple, " the father 
of the town/' — Thomas Whipple, Esq., of Charlestown, 
who can speak for himself 

Mr. Whipple said : 

M7\ President : 

One hundred years ago, Seth Chase and his companioh 
stood gazing for the first time upon the same magnificent 
scenery which surrounds us to-day. The grand outlines are 
the same, hut civilization has wrought changes in the details. 
When they turned their eyes to the east there stood before 
them Pine Hill, not as now rough and jagged, but covered 
all over with tall pines gracefully waving their beautiful 
branches in the breeze ; at their feet lay two miniature lakes 
reflecting the beams of the rising sun, while at the west 
loomed up Croydon Mountain. Nature had spread out all 
around them only beauty and grandeur, yet how sad and 
lonely must have been their condition. They were alone. 
No human voice to cheer, or heart to sympathize with them. 
All around them was a dark, howling wilderness. Fifteen 
days after, as we may well conceive, most gladly did they 
welcome Moses Whipple and David Warren, who arrived 
with their families. 

It has been my good fortune from my earliest boyhood to 
be much with the early settlers of this town, and listen to 
their conversations, — and hence, had I time I could relate 
many a thrilling or amusing incident connected with the 
early history of the town. I could tell you something of 
the grief that wrung our mothers' hearts when Capt. Moses 
Whipple was called to lead away to the war so many of 



47 

their husbands and sons, and with what ecstasy their return 
was hailed. 

My time will permit me to relate only one or two inci- 
dents ; and first, I will tell you about a hoat-ride to which 
an inhabitant of this town was once treated. Having refused 
to pay his taxes, and secreted his property, the collector 
went with his posse to arrest him. Armed with a loaded 
gun he defiantly threatened with death any one who should 
attempt the arrest. Dea. Whipple calmly remarking that 
he was as well prepared to die as any one of the party, 
sprang upon and disarmed him. He was placed upon horse- 
back, to be taken to prison, but he rolled himself off as fast 
as he was put on the rude saddle. The patience of the par- 
ty becoming exhausted, they improvised a stout stone boat, 
to which he was firmly bound. A spirited horse was attach- 
ed to the boat. The collector mounted another, and started 
for Charlestown jail. Ordinary boat-rides often produce sea- 
sickness,, and the track here led over rocks, stumps, and the 
roots and trunks of fallen trees, which were not very care- 
fully avoided; but he braced himself against all sensations 
of the kind. Voyagers across the Atlantic to the North 
American coast are delighted, especially in winter, on 
approaching the Gulf Stream. The warmness of the water, 
and the balmy softness of the atmosphere are peculiarly 
agreeable. But when our hero approached a gulf in the 
south part of the town, through which ran an unbridged 
stream, he shrank back, beat up a parley, paid the tax and 
costs, and returned a sadder and a wiser, if not a better man. 
The effect was most salutary; and it was long before anoth- 
er, having the pecuniary ability, refused or neglected to jDay 
taxes with which he was legally assessed. 



48 

And now let me tell you another story of how a husband 
was made ivell and a wife 7nade sick. The main wheel to 
the mill first erected in the town became deranged, and no 
one could be found to put it in order except the person that 
built it. Lame and almost helpless, he was carried to the 
wheel-pit, where by accident he was precipitated into the 
icy cold water. The suddenness of the immersion, and his 
efforts to escape from the unwelcome bath, completely cured 
him for the time. The necessary repairs were made, and he 
walked homeward. His wife seeing him approach, and 
imagining that he was killed and that she saw his appari- 
tion, was overcome by the emotion and confined to her bed, 
while the husband resumed his former labors. 

Your President has alluded to the fact that I am a 
descendant of Moses Whipple. You will indulge me in a 
few words in relation to him. He was a proprietor and one 
of the earliest settlers of the town. He descended in the 
fifth generation from Matthew Whipple, who settled at 
Ipswich hamlet, Mass., in 1635. He was born in 1733. 
His early advantages for education were quite limited. He 
was by occupation a mill-wright and surveyor of land. In 
1762, he was appointed by the Governor of Massachusetts 
an officer in the militia " in the regiment whereof Artemus 
Ward was Colonel." At the organization of the militia of 
Croydon in 1774, he was chosen Captain and commissioned 
by John Wentworth, the last colonial goveinor of the 
Province. The next year he was appointed to the same 
office by Matthew Thornton, President of the Congress of 
New Hampshire. He was a representative to one of the 
early Conventions held at Exeter, and for several years 
elected to the State Legislature. When the soldiers of 




^ ^ 



^J^. d^^^. 



49 

1777 inarched to tlie war from this town, he commanded a 
company composed mainly of men of gigantic stature, and 
many of them of herculian strength. Without tents, and 
destitute of baggage-wagons, they carried their arms, equip- 
ments and provisions across the Green Mountains on their 
backs. When the militia was re-organized at the close of 
the war, he was appointed Colonel of the 15th Eegiment. 
In 1786 he was appointed one of the " Conservators of the 
Peace" to quell the insurrectionary spirit which had sur- 
rounded our Legislature with an armed mob, and threatened 
the State with anarchy and ruin. In 1814, a year memora^ 
ble for the success of the American arms in the second Avar 
for independence, he was gathered to the tomb " like a 
shock of corn fully ripe." 

Catherine Forbush early became the wife of Moses Whip- 
ple, and shared with him all the toils and privations of the 
early settlement. The next summer after their arrival, she 
called all the children to her house and established a school, 
which she continued for a long time without money and 
without price, and laid the foundation on which the old 
schoolmasters, Stephen Powers, Martin Griswoldj and Elea- 
zer Jackson built; and on which others of a later day have 
reared a superstructure so eminent for usefulness. The 
mother of fourteen children, she died in 1829. 

The Pkesident. You will now listen to a farmer, and 
a descendant of the honest Coopers — the Hon. Lemuel P. 
Cooper, of Croydon, in whom it is to be presumed all the 
virtues of his ancestors " still live." 

Mr Cooper said : 
Ladies and Gentlemen : 

I am unexpectedly called upon to speak a word for the 



50 

" Cooper Family," and also a word for the farmers of 
Croydon. As regards the race whose name I bear, a very 
few words will suffice. Since their first landing in this 
country to the present time, I think their record stands 
second to none for honesty and integrity of purpose. Esteem- 
ing others more highly than themselves they have never been 
aspiring. Being religiously inclined, they have ever labored 
to sustain the institutions of the gospel, and to promote the 
well-being of the community in which they have resided. 
My father, grandfather, and great-grandfather, and perhaps 
still further back, were deacons in the Congregational 
Church, and so far as I have been able to learn, they have 
all been men of good reputation and ornaments to their 
professions. My father, grandfather and uncles were among 
the early emigrants to this town, and shared largely in the 
hardships and perils of the early settlement. They are all 
gathered to their fathers. It is a pleasing reflection that 
they were numbered with that noble band, who, periling 
their lives, marched shoulder to shoulder against the common 
enemy during the Revolutionary struggle. Few can review 
their family records with less fear of shame or more just 
pride and satisfaction than the Coopers. They have all 
acted well their parts in life. Thus much for the Coopers. 

You will now indulge me in a word in relation to the 
farmers. I believe if there is any man since King David 
after God's own heart, it is the honest, steady, persevering 
farmer. For fifty years in succession I have been laboring on 
a farm, and gaining my bread by the sweat of my brow. I 
know something of its operations, but nothing of its hard- 
ships when compared with the pioneers of the town. I am 
filled with astonishment when I reflect upon the vast amount 



51 

of labor performed by our fathers during the first half cent- 
ury. Their farms were covered with a heavy growth of trees ; 
the soil was hard and forbidding; their implements were few 
and rudely made; and their resources small, save their own 
strong and persevering wills and their resolute and contented 
wives. During that time, houses were erected; the trees 
disappear; the stones are rolled up into fences; roads are 
made; bridges are thrown across the streams; school-houses 
are built; churches are erected; a minister is settled — and 
what is more, is paid ; and large families are raised and edu- 
cated. In short the "wilderness is made to bud and blossom 
like the rose." And while the father and older sons were 
doing this, the mother and daughters were in-doors manu- 
facturing with their own hands the fabrics wherewith to 
clothe the household. There was then no Lowell or Man- 
chester with their mammoth factories throwing off their 
thousands of yards a day. I remember the process — the 
carding, the spinning, the twisting, the reeling, the sizing, 
the bucking, the spooling, the sleiding, the drawing in, and 
the quilling. Then the mother takes the loom-seat, and 
throwing the shuttle alternately with one hand and catching 
it with the other, swinging the lathe with the liberated hand, 
and springing the treadles with her feet, and thus she rolled 
up from five to twenty yards a day; and thus was wool and 
flax and tow converted into cloth for our fathers. It was 
a labor honorable to our sainted mothers. Poorly can the 
young of our day appreciate their labors and sacrifices, and 
how much our fathers and mothers have done to promote 
their comfort and happiness. Honorable mention might be 
made of many prominent and enterprising farmers that 
have passed away since my recollection. The Whipples, 



52 

the Wheelers, the Stows, the Jacobses, the Putnams, the 
Ryclers, the Powerses, the Bartons, the Humphreys, and 
others equally worthy. 

One or two instances will serve to give us an insight into 
the actual life of the first settlers. 

I see before me the descendants of a couple that early 
commenced life here. They had but just purchased them a 
farm and cleared up a small portion of land, when by acci- 
dent the husband was disabled. He lingered a helpless man 
for three years, and then died. And now what shall the 
wife with a sick husband, five small children, an unsubdued 
farm, and no apparent means of subsistence do ? What 
but call upon public charity or her friends for help ? She 
did no such thing. While the larger children took care 
of the smaller ones she plied herself to her loom with an 
assiduity which enabled her not only to furnish medicine 
and advice to her husband, but to feed, clothe and educate 
her children. Tliose boys grew to manhood, and were among 
our most worthy and skillful farmers. That farm remained 
in their hands for more than sixty years. And the name of 
the heroine, " grandmarm" Sanger, deserves to be cherished 
among the dearest household words. 

Mrs. Fisher, another of the early matrons of the town, 
while her husband — who was necessarily much away labor- 
ing to procure the means of subsistence — was gone, would 
tie one child in the chair, while with her infant on the one 
arm, and her milk-pail on the other, she would wend her 
way through the woods to her cow, — a mile off in the nearest 
grass plot, — milk it, and recrossing Sugar River (then a bold 
and rapid stream) on a log, hasten back to her child. 

One more, Peter Powers, not yet twenty-one years of age, 




^^^ 



-^-<^t 



^ 



53 

purchased his time, and was married to Lois Cooper, a lady- 
still younger than himself. An axe, a spinning-wheel and a 
loom constituted their capital stock. At the end of twenty- 
five years they had cleared up three hundred acres of land, 
and covered it with luxuriant grass, waving grain, and bleat- 
ing herds. , They had erected three houses, two mills, a 
number of barns and other buildings, — and what is more, 
had reared and most thoroughly educated a family of six 
children. 

But I must not dwell longer upon these reminiscences of 
the past. As I close, let us all remember how truly and 
wisely it has been said, " He that maketh two blades of 
grass to grow where but one grew before, is a benefactor of 
his race." 

The President. We have been listening to the sons of 
Croydon. I propose that we now listen to one of the sons- 
in-law, I perceive we have among us an honored guest who 
was so unfortunate as not to be born in town, but who, nev- 
ertheless, has made the best amends he could by taking 
a wife who loas. You will listen to the Hon. Moses 
Humphrey, Ex-Mayor of Concord. 

Mr. Humphrey said : 
Mr. President, and Citizens of Croydon : 

It is with pleasure that I meet with you on this occasion. 
This anniversary does not come often, and hence, when it 
does occur, it is all the more pleasant for us to meet together 
and recall past scenes and renew old acquaintances. In re- 
sponse to the sentiment with which your President saw fit 
to introduce me, I would say, I am happy to acknowledge 
myself largely indebted to the influence and advice of one 



54 

of your girls, who has shared with me the joys and trials of 
life for thirty-four years. Let me say to you, sir, that my 
success in life is in a great measure due to the good practical 
common sense and right influence which has come to me 
through my wife, who is a native of this good old town of 
Croydon. In 1843 I became a citizen of this place, and 
remained with you nine years. Coming from the old Plym- 
outh Colony, down on the seaboard, 1 found your ways and 
habits widely different from those to which I had been ac- 
customed. I found here a farming community. The one 
which I left had but little of agriculture — there the people 
were mainly engaged in commercial and mechanical pur- 
suits. I am greatly indebted to you for many valuable hints 
which I received while here and which have been of great 
advantage to me in the various positions of trust and honor 
to which I have been called since I left you. Another thing 
which perhaps served still more strongly to attach me to 
this place, was the fact that then, as now and all along, our 
political views have been in perfect harmony. In conclusion, 
let me thank you for the opportunity of being with you on 
this pleasant occasion. The remembrance of this day I 
shall carry with me to my grave. 

The President. — I think that we ought not to proceed 
further this afternoon without the " benefit of clergy." I 
now call upon one to whose voice we all listen with pleasure, 
a native of this town, and whose presence we are glad to 
welcome here — Eev. Luther J. Fletcher, of Maine. 

Mr. Fletcher said : 

Our brothers and sisters, who have remained upon the 
soil where we all sported in childhood, but from which many 



55 

of lis have been induced to wander, have invited us all home 
again, that we may join them in congratulations to the dear 
old Mother, who observes to-day her diamond loedding. 
Their invitations we heard from afar ; and with long-cher- 
ished fondness for the place which gave us birth, with broth- 
erly and sisterly affection for those who sent us such friendly 
greetings, we gather here .from the North and the South, 
the East and the West, on the spot where the first settlers 
wedded the bride of their choice, to deposit our gifts and 
speak our rejoicings. 

I am sorry that Croydon receives us to-day with tears in 
her eyes ;* but aged mothers do this, sometimes, when as 
their sons and daughters come home after a long absence, 
their hearts overflow with gladness, and they weep for joy. 
There is something of sadness in such a welcome, yet none 
the less of love. Let us therefore accept these tears as the 
best welcome which, under the circumstances, we could ex- 
pect, and only hope that when, a hundred years from this, 
we come to her second Centennial, the good mother will give 
us nothing but smiles. 

I repeat that we have come to exchange the expressions 
of an exalted friendship. That is most exalted which 
is most pure, and the friendships formed in youth are 
the purest and most lasting of any we enjoy or exercise, 
in this life. That they are lasting, we have, to-day, 
many demonstrations. Such friendships have lived, while 
we have been unconscious of their presence in the heart, and 
though thrust aside for a time, into some obscure corner, and 
almost forgotten, they have been awakened by the power of 
association and made to act with such force as to sway all 

*When the speech was made, the sky was overcast, and it began to rain. 



56 

the purposes of the soul. We have met with those, this 
morning, very dear to us in childhood or youth, but who, be- 
cause of long absence, had not been present to our thoughts 
for many years ; yet our love for them had not expired, but 
only waited to be called into action, when we found it as 
fresh, warm and gushing as in auld Lang Syne. 

This is a day of unusual re-awakenings, and as the past 
gives back to us its treasures of long forgotten scenes, we 
are rejuvenated and live once more in the long ago. 0, how 
the sight of a familiar face, — changed, indeed, by twenty or 
thirty years, yet still familiar, — or the sound of a voice unlike 
any other we have heard for a quarter of a century, has this 
day taken us back to the scenes of our childhood, and flood- 
ed the soul with sweet remembrances ! There is one who 
was our schoolmate ! How many times have we striven to- 
gether for the head of the class ! How many days, sitting 
side by side in the old red school-house, have we conspired to 
elude the vigilance of the teacher, and cheat him of a part 
of the study he had required of us, little thinking that we 
were only cheating ourselves ! How we coasted, skated, 
fished and swam together, from year to year ! He is not the 
boy he then was. A young man at his side calls him father. 
Can it be possible ? And have we changed, in his sight, as 
he in ours ? 

Ah ! there is one, who was a young man when I was a 
boy. Many a time I listened to his voice as he sang with 
my father, — now a member of the choir above, — and though 
he has exchanged the red roses of blooming cheeks for the 
white lilies of age, his countenance bears its familiar ex- 
pression, and his smile is the same as it was full thirty years 
ago ! How many scenes are revived by that smile ! How 



57 

many faces appear in the halls of memory, summoned from 
the obscurity in which they have long been hanging, by the 
presence of that well-remembered face ! Welcome, wel- 
come, old friends ! 

Shadowy as are many of your forms and faces, unsubstan- 
tial as is the vision in which ye seem to rise before me, 1 bid 
you all welcome to this grand festival — this renewal of old 
friendships — this first Centennial of our native town ! 

And may we not believe that those whom memory does 
not recall — those who lived here before the days of our earli- 
est years, the first settlers in this beautiful valley — are with 
us here to-day, though we see them not, smiling upon the 
achievements of a century, more fully apparent to them than 
to us, and happy in the thought, that like Old Mortality, 
we, their descendants, are relettering their tombstones, and 
helping by these ceremonies to give their name and fame to 
another hundred years ? If it be so, then happy are those 
who, standing in the presence of assembled generations, can 
fee] that by noble efibrts and virtuous lives, they command 
the benedictions of their honored sires. 

But Croydon is, to-day, impartial in her favors to those 
who call her mother. Her invitation went forth to all her 
children, and those who came home at her call are cordially 
welcome. She does not ask if all are equally worthy. She 
does not admit us to seats of exaltation determined by the 
measure of our intellect, or by our past good deeds. She does 
not inquire if we be orthodox or heterodox, rich or poor, 
democrats or republicans. It is enough, if at our birth we 
were sealed as her children. Some may have been indolent, 
some unfortunate, some prodigals ; but the dear old mother 
welcomes all to-day as her sons and daughters, and the tears 



58 

slie may have shed for our past misdeeds are all forgotten in 
the joy that we have kept her in fond remembrance, and at 
her call have all come home again. 

Oh, happy, suggestive thought ! We have all been wan- 
derers from the home of youthful purity — from a higher and 
diviner Parent than is the mother of whom I have been 
speaking ; and when the cycle of His century shall be com- 
plete, and the jubilee of redemption shall come, will not his 
impartial grace extend invitations to all his children, and as 
the prodigals obey the summons and hasten home, will He 
not bid them welcome, and in the joy of their return, 
remember their misdeeds no more forever ? 

For such a consummation let us both hope and pray ; and 
in joyous anticipation of a universal re-union, cherish the 
memory of all our loved ones in the earth, that the joy of 
our meeting in the spirit-land shall be enhanced by our 
enlarged and ever-growing affection for each other in the 
present life. 

As I have looked on the assemblage of the sons and 
daughters of Croydon, and have felt the power of an unseen 
influence attaching me to this place of my birth, as to no 
other spot on earth, the question has more than once arisen 
in my mind touching the cause of the sweet attraction, and 
just now the satisfactory answer comes to me. It is not 
that Croydon is a town remarkable for its beautiful scenery, 
classic grounds or famous institutions, — not that her fields 
are richer, or her children nobler than those of other towns 
in the dear old Grranite State, but chiefly, as it seems to me, 
htcaxise this was our cradle — the place in which we first 
knew the blessing of parental love — in which, beneath the 
fond nursings and unremitted watchfulness of father and 



59 

mother, we made our first essays in observation, opened onr 
eyes to behold the light of surrounding objects, and com- 
menced the development of our infant powers — the place 
where our feeble thoudits were first turned towards God, 
and in which with little hands clasped and eyes uplifted, we 
were taught to say our infant prayers. 

There are no thoughts of a whole life so sacred as those 
which go back to such beginnings, and they hallow every 
thing associated with them. In our manhood and woman- 
hood we sometimes overhaul the rubbish of our father's 
back-chamber or the attic, until we come upon the cradle in 
which we were rocked. It may be old-fashioned and out of 
repair ; it may be covered with dust and cobwebs ; the 
smoke of the old kitchen may be seen upon its paint ; and 
its rockers, by much use, be worn almost flat ; but the sight 
of it awakens fond and sacred recollections, and as we bring 
it out into the light and sit down to gaze upon it, sweet 
words and loved faces are given us from the past, the song 
of the mother's hushaby is in our ears again, and that old 
cradle, not for what it is, but for what it has been to us, is 
the dearest thing on earth. So, in a certain sense, is this 
old town to those who were born here. It is not in any 
sense a splendid place. It has not been extensively mod- 
ernized. The dust of old usages clings to it, and some who 
are being cradled here may think that it rocks hard ; yet the 
sight of it brings back the days of our earliest recollections, 
and we love it because it is our cradle. 

Imagination may have an undue influence in the processes 
of my mind at the present time, but it seems to me that all 
around us, floating on the breath of this June morning, and 
echoing on these hills, are the words of her, now singing 



60 



with the angels, — words which we have sung to our own 
children, or taught them as their evening prayer — 



or 



" Hush, my dear, lie still and slumber, 
Holy angels guard thy bed," 



" Now I lay me down to sleep, 
I pray the Lord my soul to keep." 



I believe there is a saving power in the associations which 
flood the soul with such memories, — and let me say, in con- 
clusion, that those of us who carry the most of the spirit of 
this hour into the days and years of our future lives in the 
earth, will best do justice to the past, and honor our native 
town in years to come. 

God bless the dear old cradle of our infancy ! May holy 
angels watch its future destiny from the summits of the sur- 
rounding mountain towers, that it may be beautiful, honor- 
able, prosperous, when, in spirit if not in flesh, we assemble 
here again at the end of another hundred years ! 

The President. — We have present a guest from the 
queen city of New England, and a son of Benjamin Barton, 
junior, who I trust will give us some account of the Barton 
family and their early adventures. You will hear Alexan- 
der Barton, Esq., of Boston. 

Mr. Barton said : 

Mr. President, Gentlemen and Ladies : 

Under other circumstances I should ask to be excused 
but as you ask me to respond in behalf of the descendants 
of Benjamin Barton, I will do so as briefly as I may. My 
grandfather Benjamin Barton, senior, lived at Sutton, Mass., 
entered the army of the Revolution, and died at Bunker 
Hill. 





>Vft O.V^'t 



trv 



61 



My father Benjamin Barton, Jr., was born at Satton,Mass., 
in 1755 He had few early advantages, no opportunity for 
schooling ; learned to write and cipher on birch bark. At 
the ac^e of eighteen he entered the Revolutionary army and 
was at Bunker Hill, Bennington, West Point and New 
York city. In 1779 he returned to Royalston, Mass., and 
married Mehitable Fry. The next year he went to New- 
bury Vt , to look for a new home. After a vain search of 
thr;e weeks, traveling by the aid of marked trees, he return- 
ed as far as Croydon, and here purchased him a farm. In 
1783 he spent six weeks clearing up the land and makmg 
preparations for a settlement, with a hollow log only for 
a shelter, and bears and wolves for his nearest and most 
numerous, if not most intimate neighbors. In March, 1784, 
they started for their wilderness-home. Behold the picture ! 
A young wife, who had been as tenderly reared as any of her 
day, seated on an ox sled, her three children with her,-on 
the one side, a daughter of four years, on the other, a lad of 
two, and in her arms an infant son ; on that sled were all 
their household effects, and behind was tied the cow. After 
surmounting many difiaculties they arrived at Unity. Here 
the roads were so drifted that they were obliged to make a 
change and harness their oxen tandem. They arrived at 
Croydon on the ninth day, accomplishing a journey of sixty- 
five miles. 

They had occupied their log cabin but a short time, when 
a rude storm scattered the bark, of which the roof was com- 
posed to the four winds and obliged them, through snow 
waist deep, with their children in their arms, to seek shelter 
in a neighboring cabin three-fourths of a mile away. 

My father commenced public life in 1786, two years after 



62 

his arrival. He was elected Representative a number of 
years, was Selectman some twenty, Moderator and Town 
Clerk a great number, and was Justice of the Peace from 
1798 to the period of his death which occurred July 9, 1834. 

CHILDRE^f OP Benjamin BAETOX.—Phebe born Apr. 21, 1780. Benj. bora Feb. 22, 1782. 
John born Feb. 17, 1784. Peter born May 17, 1785. Ruth born Aug. 6, 1788. Fry born 
Oct. 30, 1790. Susan born Sept. 16, 1792. Phila born Aug. 17, 1794. Cyrus born Dec. 25, 
1795. David born March 23, 1800. Reuben born June 5, 1802. Alexander born June 14, 
1804. 

The Pkesident. — The name of Rev. Jacob Haven will 
be known and reverenced while these hills and valleys are 
inhabited. For half a century he did not fail to speak the 
words of truth and soberness to this people. His voice is 
now silent, but you will be glad to listen to his son, 
Capt. Moses Haven, of Plainfield. 

Mr. Haven responded : 
3Ir. President : 

No spot on earth is so dear to man as the place where he 
was born and where were spent the hours of his infancy and 
childhood. In common with you all, ladies and gentlemen, 
I partake most fully of this sentiment to-day. Here were 
spent the hours of my boyhood. These hills witnessed my 
childish sports and pleasures. These fields and meadows 
and ponds and mountains, seem almost my brothers. 

It was here that, at the age of sixteen, I entered the 
militia and was shortly after elected sergeant, and by regular 
gradations rose to be Captain, and thought I had achieved 
wonders. When I was chosen chorister, a position which I 
held for a long time, I felt greatly honored; and when by the 
partiality of my fellow-townsmen I was elected one of the 
selectmen of the town, I felt I had reached almost the last 
round in the ladder of my ambition. 



63 

These achievements in the eyes of the world may not 
seem much, but to my young fancy it was far otherwise. 
Since then I have been out into the world doing battle with 
the stern duties of maturer life, until the weight of years 
now presses heavily upon me ; and yet, I must say, no after 
achievements have afforded me a pleasure like these. I 
have mingled in no other scenes so sweet, have found no 
other spot so dear. 

Around yonder hill, in the grave-yard, rests my reverend 
and venerated father, that sainted mother who dandled me 
in my infancy, two loved companions and many other cher- 
ished friends. It is a dear spot to me. And there, beside 
them, I have directed shall be my last earthly resting place. 

I now close by thanking God that I have been permitted 
to live until this day, so that I may meet so many of my 
old companions, and mingle in these joyous scenes. 

Keene, Aug. 24th, 1866. 
Dear Brother : — If, as you suggest, the Committee of 
Arrangements, who carried through the Croydon Centennial 
Celebration so successfully, desire to have the fragments of 
our Feast gathered up for preservation, I can see no objec- 
tion to it. And I will furnish a sketch of what was said by 
me in the opening. But the whole loaves should be saved, 
as well as what remains of those distributed. And the 
speeches prepared by Dr. Whipple and yourself, and per- 
haps others, — but not delivered on account of the inclemency 
of the day, — should be included, as well as the portions omit- 
ted by other speakers for the same reason. I shall set the 
example by sending what was said and what was omitted, at 
the outset. 

Very truly yours, 

WM. P. WHEELER. 



64 

In accordance with the foregoing suggestion from the 
President of the day, and at the request of the Committee of 
Arrangements, I insert the following speeches: 

Speech of John Cooper, Esq., of Croydon. 

Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 

Allusion in flattering terms has been made to my poor 
efforts to rescue from oblivion the names, labors, and charac- 
ters of some of the first settlers of Croydon. What I have 
done in that direction, has brought its own reward with it ; 
for it has afforded me much pleasure to collect the facts re- 
specting your ancestors and mine. I venerate the memories 
of those men and women who were the pioneers of civiliza- 
tion in this town ; and the better I have become acquainted 
with their history, the more I have admired their courage in 
leaving the older settlements of Massachusetts and coming 
to this place — then a howling wilderness — for the purpose of 
providing for themselves " a local habitation and a name." 
Their children and their children's children should, on this 
commemorative occasion, rise up and bless their memories. 
But I will leave it to others older than myself, to eulogize 
the Whipples, Powerses, Lelands, Halls, Bartons, Wheelers, 
Havens, and others who came to this town nearly one hun- 
dred years ago, while I confine myself to a few brief remarks 
concerning my paternal grandfather, one of the early set- 
tlers of this town. 

Deacon John Cooper was born in 1725 ; he married Mary 
Sherman, of Grafton, Mass., in 1748, and the same year 
settled in Hardwick, Mass. While living there he divided 
his time between the cultivation of a farm and teaching the 
" town school." During the " French and Indian War," 



65 

from 1754 to 1763, he was also engaged largely in supplying 
the English and Provincial troops with beef. In 1769 he 
removed to Cornish, N. H., and the year following he came 
to this place — four years only after the first settlement of 
the town. His locating here added but little to the mate- 
rial wealth of the place (for he was a man of a broken for- 
tune), but he brought with him what was of more value than 
money, namely, an intelligent and energetic wife and eight 
healthy children. He settled on a spot within sight of this 
stand, where Otis Cooper, Esq., one of his lineal descendants, 
now resides. There he lived ; and there, in 1805, he closed 
his earthly labors at the ripe age of eighty years. His 
remains now rest in the "Old Burial Ground on the Hill." 

Tradition does not represent the character of Dea. Cooper 
as perfectly well-balanced. He did not possess that courage 
— that backbone, necessary to face danger of every kind 
without flinching. But he was distinguished for honesty, 
sobriety, love of order, and for full an average share of 
common sense. As far as energy and decision of character 
were concerned, his wife was the better man of the two. 
But still his abilities were considered above the general 
level, as the early records will show ; for he was chosen 
repeatedly Town Clerk, and was often elected one of the 
selectmen, and several times chairman of the board. 

He ruled his own house well, and was in other respects 
peculiarly fitted for the office of deacon. He held that 
ofiice forty-seven years — twenty years in Hardwick, and 
twenty-seven years in this town. It is the concurrent testi- 
mony of tradition that Dea. John Cooper was a faithful 
and an efficient church officer. 

In conclusion, I will add that, in consequence of his chil- 



ee 

»Iren's iiitermariying with tlie families around them, the 
Cooper blood has become so intermingled with that of 
almost every other name, that standing here to-day and 
looking at the vast concourse before me, I can claim you 
all as cousins. 

Speech of S. M. Whipple, M. D., of New London. 

3fr. President : 

It is with mingled feelings of diffidence and confidence, 
that I present myself before you on this joyous occasion to 
respond in behalf of the medical profession. It is with dif- 
fidence when I recollect that the practice of medicine does 
not require the possession, or exercise, of those powers of 
eloquence which can arrest the attention of a large audience 
and hold them spell-bound at will, and hence I might fail to 
interest you; but, on the other hand, it is with confidence 
when I feel that we have all gathered around this old fami- 
ly altar, not to criticise, but to exchange friendly greetings, 
and be happy, and hence that any voice is welcome, if only 
it be the voice of a son, or daughter of Croydon. 

From the first attempts to heal diseases, Medicine began 
to exist as a profession. From the earliest antiquity it will 
compare most favorably with the other professions. Aristo- 
tle, Lock, Hartley, Mackintosh and Brown — all standing 
high on the roll of fame — were all physicians. 

It may not be inappropriate on this occasion to refer a 
moment to the profession as it has existed in this town. 
Tradition says that during the first third of a century, 
Croydon had no regular bred physician, and that the prac- 
tice of medicine was almost entirely in the hands of females. 
Originally, and for many years it was given to Mrs. Phineas 



67 

Sanger " to heal diseases and minister to the distressed." 
And then came Mrs. Sarah Powers, wife of Amos Hagar, a 
woman of uncommon intellectual and physical po°wers. 
That she had some weight in town is sufficiently evinced by 
the fact that she could make a scale of three hundred and 
fifty pounds avoirdupoise, honest weight, kick the beam. On 
her favorite steed she promptly answered all calls in storms, 
in winter, and by night. True she was less skilled in the 
books than the Crosbys and the Peaslees of to-day, yet 
her strong common sense and ready judgment seldom failed 
to do the right thing in the right way. 

First among the trained physicians— for I am old enough 
to recollect him in his more advanced years— comes the plain 
straight forward, practical Carroll, who, riding over these 
hills, with his saddle-bags, on horseback, was a most welcome 
visitor in every sick room. And I have not forgotten the sad 
accident— the upsetting of his carriage on yonder hill— which 
ended his life. And I remember the more learned Gustin 
that followed him— and Alden, and Cooper, and Leavitt, and 
Coburn, and Hall. Of Marsh and Barton, now here, I need 
not speak, for you all know them better than I do. 

Croydon has contributed more men to medicine than to 
either of the other learned professions. Few towns in the 
State have furnished comparatively so many eminent and 
skillful physicians and so few quacks as this. Her Coopers, 
her Wheelers, her Gibsons and her Powerses, in their pro- 
fessional acquirements, rank deservedly high. And hence it 
is that wherever they go you will find them enjoying the 
confidence and esteem of the community in which they 
reside. Sir, I am proud of the medical profession, and I 
am proud of the success that has attended those sons of 
Croydon who have devoted themselves to so noble a callino-. 



68 

Speech of Edmund Wheeler, of Newport, 

Mr. President : 

I am happy to respond in behalf of the mechanics of 
Croydon. I have always regarded the mechanic arts as 
among the most useful and honorable occupations of man. 
I have long regarded Franklin and Fulton and Morse, men 
who first harnessed the steam power and the lightning, and 
others like them, as among the greatest benefactors of our 
race. 

Well do I remember the names and faces of those me- 
chanics who flourished here some half century ago — the 
Kemptons, the Humphrys, the Eastmans, the Fletchers, 
the Dodges and others. To-day I almost hear these hills 
echoing back the hearty ring of their hammers, their lap- 
stones and their anvils. 

We do not often consider how very much we are indebted 
to the mechanic for all the ordinary blessings and luxuries 
of life. For example, how very much it would detract from 
the dignity and elegance of this vast audience were we to 
take away from them the handiwork of the milliner, the 
dressmaker and the tailor, and carry them back to the prim- 
itive days when; fig-leaves only were worn in Eden. Nor are 
these outward adornings, charming though they be, all we 
owe the mechanic — but the tables around which we gather, 
the chairs in which we sit, the beds on which we sleep, the 
beautiful carriages in which we ride, and the grand old man- 
sions which shelter our heads, and around which cluster so 
many thousand sweet memories, are also the work of his 
hand. 

Take away from the farmer his hoe, his shovel, his axe, 
his plow, and his cart, and you have robbed him of his 
strength and paralyzed his labors. 



69 

Take away from the clergyman, the lawyer, and the phy- 
sician those immense libraries of their's in which are garner- 
ed up all the wisdom of ages, and their light would be 
comparative darkness — they would be no longer the learned 
professions they now are. 

Look also at the telegraph and the steam-press. That 
thought of the philosopher which otherwise would have fall- 
en almost still-born from his lips, or hardly have reached 
beyond the sound of his own voice, is seized upon by the 
telegraph and the steam-press and in twenty-four hours is 
giving joy and blessings to a million homes all over the 
land. Yes, the press, that mighty engine of power, invent- 
ed and wielded by the mechanic, has gathered up the choice 
works of art, science, poetry, history, literature, and above 
all of inspiration, and multiplied them a million fold and 
scattered them abroad until the whole earth is literally flood- 
ed with light. 

I might also point you to the mammoth factories which 
he has erected, and filled with machinery almost endowed 
with intelligence, and which are throwing off their thousand 
varied products for the benefit of man. But why need I 
stop to enumerate ? 

As on the land so also on the water : It is with his leave 
that the navies of the world are to-day so proudly walking 
the ocean; and it is by his permission that commerce 
spreads her white wings and carries her countless treasures 
all over the world. 

But I need utter no language in commendation of the 
mechanic. His glory is proclaimed not by spoken words, 
but in the proud monuments of his skill and industry 
evervwhere around us. 



70 

As I close, allow me to say that those sons of Croydon 
who have devoted themselves to the mechanic arts, have 
done their full share towards maintaining the honor of their 
native town. 



A vote of thanks was passed to the Orator, the President, 
the Band, the Glee Club, and all others who had aided in 
the' celebration. 

The audience then all rose and united in singing Old 
Hundred. 

Three cheers were then given for the Old Century, three 
for the New, three for the Ladies, and three for the Coun- 
try. After which a vote to adjourn to June 13, 1966, was 
unanimously carried amicHhe wildest acclamation. 






,-A 



r\ 






-4 



p 




^ 









c. K. vi-F.TcnF.r>. 
11 uiMrnnF.Y. 



0. codricu. 
p, Kiprn. 

E. rOWF.RS. 



r>. HALL. 

R. c. winrrLF. 

J. COOFEF^ 



71 



Officers and Committees. 



President of tUe Day, 



Hon. WILLIAM P. WHEELER, of Keene. 



Vice-Presidents, 

Hon. Moses Humphry, 
Alexander Barton, Esq., 
Levi W. Barton, Esq., 
Adolphus Hall, Esq., - 
Calvin Hall, Esq., 
Capt, Arial Hall, 
Hon. Orra Crosby, 
Freeman Cutting, Esq.,- 
Orlando Powers, Esq., 
Elom Marsh, Esq., 
RuEL DuRKEE, Esq., 
Samuel Blanchard, Esq., - 
Wm. E. Melendy, Esq., - 
Elijah Gr. Ryder, Esq., 
Capt, Moses Haven, - - - 
Wm. F. Cooper, M. D., 
Hiram Smart, Esq., - - - 
Jonas C. Kempton, Esq., 
Warren M. Kempton, Esq., - 



Concord. 

Boston. 

Newport. 

Grantham. 

Lowell, Mass. 

Williamstown, Vt. 

Hardwick, Vt. 

Claremont. 

Cornish. 

Westmoreland. 

Croydon. 

Croydon. 

Springfield. 

Sunapee. 

- Plainfield. 

Kelloggville, N. Y. 

Nashua. 

Nashua. 

- Concord. 



CUicf ITIarslial, 

CAPT. NATHAN HALL. 

Assistant Marshals, 

William W. Ryder, Martin A. Barton, Esqs., 
Major Dexter Gr. Reed. 

Committee of Arrangements, 

Col OTIS COOPER, BARNABAS C. WHIPPLE, 

REUBEN COOPER, CYRUS K. FLETCHER, 

Capt DANIEL R. HALL, JOHN COOPER, 

DANIEL RYDER, Esq., NATHAN HALL. 

Capt. WORTHEN HALL, 

Committee o£ Ladies, 



Mrs. HUBBARD COOPER, 
Mes. OREAN LOVERIN, 
Mrs. INGALLS HEATH, 
Mrs. REUBEN COOPER, 
Mrs. NATHAN HALL, 
Mrs. JOHN HURD, 
Mrs. DANIEL IDE, 



Mrs. WORTHEN HALL, 

Mrs. wm. RYDER, 

Mrs. E. DARWIN COMMINGS, 

Mrs. JAS. BOYCE, 

Miss THANKFUL RYDER, 

Miss ANGENETTA HARDING, 

Mrs. GILMAN STOCKWELL. 



72 



PERSONAL SKETCHES 



The following pages contain brief sketclies of the former 
and present families of Croydon, arranged in alphabetical 
order. They have been made as full as the data at hand 
and the room at our disposal permits. 



Jacob Ames and Simon Ames settled on farms on the 
north-east slope of the Pinnacle. The former had previous- 
ly been a saddler, at which occupation he had amassed quite 
a handsome little fortune. He married Sally, daughter of 
Darius Hall, and died at Newport, leaving a large family. 

Eev. Jacob Worthen Hall Ames, son of Jacob Ames, 
was born May 7, 1838, and died at Middletown, Ct., June 
12, 1866. He was married July 12, 1864, to Miss Tillie 
Mathison, of Middletown. He fitted for College at the New 
Hampshire Conference Seminary, and graduated at the head 
of his class from Wesleyan University in 1864. He received 
his first regular appointment in 1864, and was stationed at 
Berlin, Ct., where he remained one year. He was then 
transferred to the N. E. Conference and stationed at Chelsea, 
Mass., and at the end of the year was re-appointed to the 
same place. On account of ill health he resigned his pastor- 
ate in May, and spent some six weeks among his native hills 
in vain search of health. He survived his return to his fam- 
ily at Middletown but twenty-four hours. As he had been 



73 

a favorite at College, his sudden deatli cast a deep gloom over 
the place. He was buried with much honor. A most 
touching tribute, — " Farewell, my Husband" — written by his 
wife, on the morning of his funeral, was sung in church by 
Prof. Harrington, and a beautiful Hymn, entitled " Gather- 
ed Home," written by Prof H. for the occasion, was sung 
by the students and faculty at the grave. Mr. Ames had 
been invited to be present and invoke the Divine blessing 
upon the assembled sons and daughters of his native town 
at their centennial jubilee, but Providence had ordained it 
otherwise, — he died on the evening before. His body was 
quietly sleeping in its shroud in his much loved home, and 
his spirit was mingling with a nobler and brighter throng 
above. 

.i^I_.ILiE3Sr. 

John Allen came from Plymouth County, Mass., and 
from him have descended the Aliens. 

Bazaleel Barton, Benjamin Barton and Peter Bar-" 
TON, brothers, came to this town during the Revolution, from 
Sutton, Mass. From these have descended the numerous 
family in town bearing the name of Barton. As a family 
they are distinguished for their social qualities. 

Bazaleel Barton was one of the company that dis]3ers- 
ed the Mass. Legislature, then sitting at Worcester, at the 
commencement of the Revolution. They were away to din- 
ner. He stood at the door, and when they approached in 
procession, with royal gown and cap — with loaded gun and 
fixed bayonet bid them defiance. 



74 

Carlton BartoN; only son of Bazaleel, has been a suc- 
cessful teacher, and a man much in public business. He has 
a clear intellect, and "is a wag when he will." 

Benjamin Barton, (see speech of Alexander Barton.) 

John Barton, son of Benjamin, born Feb. 17, 1784, 
was distinguished for his plain common sense. He kept an 
extensive stock, a dairy sometimes of fifty cows, was a large 
land-holder — owned " Croydon Mountain" — and left a fam- 
ily of boys, all industrious farmers. 

Fry Barton, son of Benjamin Barton, Esq., married Ju- 
dith Powers, daughter of Samuel Powers, and removed to 
Leon, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., where he has been a prominent 
farmer. He is the father of Ara Barton, a lawyer of fine 
intellect, at St. Paul, Minnesota. 

Hon. Cyrus Barton, son of Benjamin Barton, Esq., was 
born Dec. 25, 1795. He commenced the " Claremont Spec- 
tator," at Claremont, in 1823, but in 1825 removed to New- 
port and commenced the " New Hampshire Spectator," 
where he remained until June, 1829, when he removed to 
Concord and took charge of the N. H. Patriot. He retired 
for a short time from the editorial chair and was engaged in 
agriculture at Hopkinton, but in Jan. 1852, returned to Con- 
cord and established the " State Capital Reporter," a semi- 
weekly paper, which he superintended during the remainder 
of his life. He was Register of Deeds for Sullivan County in 
1827 and 1829, and was appointed Aid-de-Camp of Gov. 
Pierce in 1829 ; chosen Secretary of the College of Electors 
of President and Vice President in 1833, and again in 1836 
and 1840 ; elected Senator from District No. 4 in 1833, and 



75 

re-elected in 1834 ; elected Councilor from Eockingham 
District in 1843 ; appointed by President Polk, U. S. Mar- 
shal for the District of N. H. in 1845 ; was a member of the 
Constitutional Convention, and President of the City Coun- 
cil of Concord in 1845. He married Hannah Hale, sister of 
the late Hon. Salma Hale, of Keene. " He was a man of 
ability, a ready, pointed and vigorous writer, and exerted a 
wide influence in the State." He died Feb, 17, 1855, at 
Loudon, while making a political speech,1falling into the 
arms of his opponent. 

George S. Barton, son of Hon. Cyrus Barton and grand- 
son of Benjamin, graduated at Dartmouth College in ]851; 
studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1853. He open- 
ed an office at Burlington, Iowa, but the next year returned 
to Newport. He was Clerk of the Senate in 1855 and 1856. 
He died July 24, 1857, aged 26 years. He was a supe- 
rior draftsman, a fine writer and a ready poet. 

Capt. Alexander Barton, son of Benjamin Barton, Esq., 
was born June 14, 1804. After leaving Croydon he spent 
a few years at Ludlow, Vt., and from thence removed to 
Boston, where, immersed in business, has been spent the 
greater portion of his active life. He is courteous and genial 
in his intercourse with others, and hence was always quite a 
favorite. In his earlier days he was much in offi.ce. He was 
Representative from his native town for the years 1836, 1837 
and 1843, and was in 1850 a member of the Constitutional 
Convention of Vermont. 

Martin A, Barton, son of Peter, and grandson of Ben- 
jamin Barton, was born Aug. 22, 1813. He is a man of 



76 

much executive ability. He was formerly engaged in trade, 
but is now devoted to farming. He has been Eepresentative, 
Selectman, and for many years Deputy- Sheriff. 

Peter Barton settled on " Winter Hill," east of East 
Village, and was the father of Peter who went to Ohio, of 
Amos and Moses substantial farmers now living in town, and 
of Aaron who removed to Piermont, N. H., where he has 
been an honored citizen. 

Levi W. Barton, son of Bazaleel Barton, 2nd, and 
grandson of Peter Barton, was born March 1, 1818. The 
advantages even of our Common Schools were in a great 
measure beyond his reach until the completion of his eigh- 
teenth year. He then prepared himself for a teacher, and 
for that purpose used his spare hours in study while engaged 
as a day laborer in the field. He attended for a few terms 
the Academy in Unity. After attaining his majority he 
conceived the purpose of obtaining a collegiate education. 
He pursued his preparatory studies at Kimball Union Acad- 
emy, and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1848. Dur- 
ing his senior year in College, he read law with Hon. Daniel 
Blaisdell, of Hanover, Immediately after graduating he 
entered the law office of Jonathan Kittridge, Esq., of 
Canaan, afterwards Chief Justice of the court of Common 
Pleas, where he remained till January of 1851, when he 
came to Newport and finished his preparatory studies with 
Messrs. Metcalf and Corbin, and was admitted to the bar in 
July of the same year. 

While in Canaan he taught the Academy in that place 
five terms, in addition to his full course of reading. 



77 

Soon after being admitted to the bar he opened an office 
in Newport, where he has since been actively engaged in the 
practice of his profession. He was Eegister of Deeds in 
1855, 1856 and 1857, and Solicitor of Sullivan County 
five years^ commencing in 1859 ; was Representative from 
Newport in 1863 and 1864, and a member of the Judiciary 
Committee — the latter year its chairman. In 1863 he was a 
candidate for the office of Attorney-general, and in 1866 was 
chairman of a board of Commissioners appointed by the Gov- 
ernor to audit and report to the Legislature the war indebt- 
edness of the several towns in the State. He was married to 
Mary Ann Pike, of Newport, in 1839, who died the year fol- 
lowing, leaving an infant son five days old, now Lt. Col. I. 
McL. Barton, late of the N. H. Heavy Artillery, and now a 
Lieutenant in the regular army. He was again married to 
Lizzie Y. Jewett, of Nashua, in 1852. 

Williams Barton, M. D., son of Bazaleel Barton 2nd, 
and grandson of Peter Barton, was born Aug. 6, 1820. He 
received his literary training at Unity and Kimball Union 
Academies ; studied medicine with Drs. Coburn, Hall and 
Nichols; graduated at the medical department of Dartmouth 
College in May, 1845, and soon after commenced practice at 
Croj'don, where he still resides. He was often chairman of 
the Superintending School Committee, and was three years 
Commissioner of Common Schools for Sullivan County, 
during which time he was often employed as professor of 
elocution, in teachers' institutes, in different parts of the 
State. 



78 

Ira W, Bragg, son of Ira Bragg, who came from Royals- 
ton, Mass., was born July 28, 1833. Fitted for college at 
Meriden and studied medicine with Dr. Perkins, of Marlow, 
N. H. He attended lectures at Dartmouth and Harvard 
Colleges, and graduated at the latter institution in 1859. 
After spending a year in the Marine Hospital at Chelsea, he 
went -to Europe and passed several months in the hospitals 
of Liverpool and London, endeavoring to still further qualify 
himself for his profession. Upon his return, after practicing 
a year at Chelsea, Mass., he was appointed Assistant Sur- 
geon in the Navy ; was on board the Minnesota at the 
time of its fearful engagement with the Merrimac, when the 
Cumberland went down, and the famous Monitor made its 
first appearance. He was transferred to the San Jacinto, the 
flag ship of the Bast Gulf Blockading Squadron, and was on 
board her during her pursuit of the Alabama among the West 
Indies and at South America. He was ordered to the West 
Gulf Blockading Squadron, and from thence to the Naval 
Hospital at New Orleans, where, on the twenty-first of Octo- 
ber, 1864, worn down by excessive labor and anxiety for the 
sick, he fell a victim to the yellow fever. In few men were 
more happily combined rare merit and graceful modesty. 

Sarah C. Bragg, sister of the above, a lady of much liter- 
ary merit and one of our most accomplished teachers, was 
born July 3, 1830. She graduated at Meriden with high 
honors, in the class of 1852. By her own industry and per- 
severance she defrayed the expenses of her education. After 
graduating she went to Georgetown, Mass., and taught a 
year and a half, she then became principal of the Young 
Ladies High School at Haverhill, Mass., which position she 




'\ 




79 



occupied most acceptably to all for four years, until her 
marriage with Seth Littlefield, Jr. 



BK.O'VST'nsr. 
Briant Brown was a social man. He came from Wil- 
liston, Vt., and married Abigail, daughter of Capt. Edward 
Hall. He resided at the Flat, was Kepresentative in 1827 
and 1828, and was more or less engaged in public business. 
He died Feb. 18, 1854, aged 61 years. 

Edward Brown, son of Briant Brown, a worthy farmer 
and a man of good judgment, was born January, 1818. 
He has for a long time taken a deep interest in the agricul- 
tural aifairs of the State and County. In 1866 he was one 
of the Committee on the State Agricultural College, whose 
duty it was to report to the Legislature a suitable plan, 
location and other matters relatino- to the State Colleo;e. 



Samuel Blanchard, son of Darius Blanchard, was born 
Sept. 17, 1790. He is a man endowed by nature with un- 
common abilities, has much shrewdness and wit, and has 
been the most successful teacher the town ever produced. 
Would our limits permit we could relate many an amusing 
instance of how the ready genius of " Black Sam" has out- 
generaled and conquered a large, turbulent, and to others 
ungovernable school, without a blow. He has devoted most 
of his life to farming. 

Darius Blanchard and John Blanchard were among 
the early settlers of the town. The former settled in the 



80 

valley north of C, K. Fletcher's, and the latter on Baltimore 
Hill. 

Lestek Blanchard, son of John Blanchard, was born 
June 17, 1808. He has ever remained on the homestead. 
He was Kepresentative in 1848 and 1849. 



James Breck, a native of Boston, was for twelve years, 
from 1804 to 1816, the leading merchant and one of the 
most influential men in Croydon. While here, he was Se- 
lectman five years and Representative four. In 1811, he 
married Martha Burr, daughter of Capt. Martin Burr, one 
of the early settlers of the town. They had a large family. 
Martin B., the oldest son, followed his father's calling. 
William and James, the second and third sons, graduated 
at Dartmouth College and turned their attention to law. 
The former, appointed Consul to China, has been, with his 
lady, for several years enjoying a residence in the " Celestial 
Empire." The latter settled at Chicago. From this town 
Mr. Breck removed to Newport, where for a long time he 
was a leading man in all public enterprises, in trade, in poli- 
tics and the religious society to which he belonged. He is 
now living at Rochester, N. Y., and, at the advanced age of 
eighty-seven yearSj still retains a vivid recollection of his 
many happy hours at Croydon, the birthplace of his com- 
panion and the spot where were first developed those quali- 
ties which gave him so marked an influence and laid the 
foundation of his extensive fortune. In 1861 they had a 
brilliant golden wedding. 



s#i^ 








y^ 1^^^ cT* 




^. ^ '^^^^^ 



81 



Martin B. Breck, eldest son of James Breck, Esq., was 

bora Oct. 15, 1812. He was educated at the district school 

and Newport Academy, after which he turned his attention 

to mercantile pursuits. He remained with his father at 

Newport until he attained to his majority. He followed his 

vocation at Croydon, at Newport, and at Boston until 1841, 

when he removed to Kochester, N. Y., where his operations' 

have been " eminently successful," and where he now lives 

enjoying all the blessings which affluence can afford. In 

1838 he married Mary Faxon, of Newport, .who lived but a 

year and a half. In 1846 he married Miss Susan E; Waters, 

of Rochester. 

Margaret A. Brece, daughter of James Breck, Esq., 
was born April 24, 1814. She was married to H. H. Per- 
kins, Esq., at Newport, in 1837, and removed to St. Croix 
Falls, Wisconsin, where he died in 1850, leaving three chil- 
dren. The eldest daughter married W. D. Webb, an attor- 
ney at law at Minneapolis, Minnesota. The son, James 
Breck Perkins, a member of the senior class in Rochester 
University, is now traveling in Europe. Mrs. P. is finely 
educated, has a well balanced mind, and a decided taste for 
literature. 

Henry Breck, now eighty-one years of age, was a native 
of Boston. He came to Croydon in 1807, and was clerk in 
the store at the Flat, owned by his brothers, William and 
James. In 1815, he purchased their interest and continued 
in trade there until 1818, when he removed to Four Corners, 
where he continued in business until 1837, when he removed 
to Cornish Flat. On the death of his brother William, in 
1848, he removed to Claremont, and settled on the "home- 



82 

stead" where he now lives. Mr. Breck took an active part 
in the erection of the Church at the Four Corners, assuming 
to himself one-fourth part the entire expense of the edifice. 
He was an active business man, and held many offices. In 
1818, married Keziah Marsh, who died in 1826. In 1828, 
married Sarah Town, of Grantham. 

John T. Breck, eldest son of Henry Breck, established 
himself as a merchant at Cornish Flat, in 1841. His integrity 
and fine business qualities have secured to him a handsome 
fortune, and an honorable reputation among his neighbors. 
His is a rare case of success in trade and universal esteem 
among his neighbors and townsmen. After having been in 
trade 26 years, he cannot be said to have an enemy. He is 
a gentleman of fine literary taste and varied attainments. 
He fitted for college, but on account of a trouble with his 
eyes, abandoned the idea of a college course, and turned his 
attention to mercantile pursuits. He retired from business 
in 1866, and is now living upon a farm in Lebanon. 

Robert Breck, the second son of Henry, is an active and 
successful merchant at Ascutneyville, Vt., where he has been 
in trade for more than 20 years, and, like his brother John 
T., has succeeded, by his skill and good judgment, in hand- 
some accumulations, and by his integrity and genial man- 
ners in securing the esteem and friendship of all who know 
him. 

Henry Breck, Jr., third son of Henry Breck, has been 
a practical farmer and gardener in the vicinity of Boston 
for several years, and is well known for his skill in his 
business, and his integrity and intelligence. He now lives 




//a. 





(^V- 



83 

at Watertown, Mass., where he has a very fine farming 
establishment. 

William Breck, son of Henry Breck, was horn Dec. 17, 
1826. At the age of fourteen, he removed with his father 
to Cornish. At eighteen, he went to Claremont, and was 
Assistant Postmaster for two years ; at the expiration of 
which time, on account of ill health, he returned to his 
father's roof at Cornish. At twenty-two, he went into 
trade with his brother John at Cornish, and continued there 
four years ; at which time, laboring under a severe attack of 
asthma, he went to California, where he was in active 
business eight years, when, having regained his health, and 
won for himself an independent fortune, he returned to New 
Hampshire, with the intention of passing the remainder of 
his hfe in retirement from active business, among his many 
relatives and friends. He is a gentleman of unquestioned 
integrity, of most genial disposition and fine social qualities. 
As a family, the Brecks have been noted for their honesty, 
integrity and gentlemanly bearing. 



B:R.ISTOI-i. 

Augusta Cooper Bristol, daughter of Col. Otis and 
Hannah Powers Cooper, was born April 17, 1835. She was 
early distinguished for a vigorous intellect, great fondness 
for music, and a passion for poetry and literature. She 
taught school with decided success from sixteen to twenty- 
one. She gave much attention to music ; and her frequent 
contributions, both of poetry and prose, to some of the lead- 
ing journals and magazines of the day, commencing at the 



84 



ace of fifteen, find many admirers. She was married to Mr. 
austavus F Kimball, of East Canaan, N. H., m August, 
1857 by whom she had one daughter, and from whom she 
was divorced after four years of wedded life. In January, 
1866 she married Louis Bristol, a lawyer, and removed to 
Oarbondale, 111., where she now resides, and where her time is 
divided between her domestic duties and a free indulgence 
in her favorite passion for literature and poetry. 

Dea John Coopek came to this town in 1770, and died 
in 1805 (See speech of John Cooper, Esq.) From him 
and his two nephews, Ezra Cooper and Samuel Cooper, 
have descended all those in this vicinity who bear the name 
of Cooper John settled on the farm of Col. Otis Cooper 
Ezra on the Pinnacle west of the old church, and Samuel 
east of Spectacle Pond. As a family the Coopers were relig- 
iously inclined, and distinguished for honesty. 

Dea Suerman Cooper, son of Dea. John and Mary 
Sherman Cooper, came to this town when he was ten years 
of a.^e and six years after shouldered his musket and joined 
the Revolutionary army. He married Mary Powers, by 
whom he had ten children, six sons and four daughters. On 
the death of his father he was chosen deacon of tlie Congre- 
gational Church, which office he held until his death. He 
was a farmer in moderate circumstances, honest in his deal 
benevolent in his disposition, temperate in his habits, and 
devoted to his religious faith. He was gifted, outspoken 
. and full of anecdote and good humor. He died m 18o0, 
aged 88 years. 



85 

William Freeman Cooper is the fourth son of the late 
Dea. Sherman Cooper, of Croydon. On his father's side he 
is descended from the Coopers and Shermans ; and on his 
mother's, from the Powerses and Lelands. His parents 
having a large family and but little property, his early hfe 
was Tne of toil. While living with them his means of 
education were small. At the age of eighteen he 
left the paternal roof and was thrown upon his own 
resources. After spending four years at the Newport Acad- 
emy and in teaching school to improve the state of his 
finances, he, in 1824, commenced his professional studies 
with Dr. Elijah Cooper, of Newport. After completing 
the usual course of preparatory studies, and attending the 
lectures at the medical school at Bowdoin College, he grad- 
uated with honor from that institution, in 1826, receiving 
the degree of Doctor of Medicine. He returned immedi- 
ately to Newport, where he commenced the practice of his 
profession, and remained there about a year. In 1827 he 
removed to Kelloggsville, in the town of Niles and County 
of Cayuga, N. Y. By the successful performance of a very 
difficult surgical operation he opened his way at once to 
professional fame. He has ever since been engaged in an 
extensive practice, in which he has amassed an ample fortune, 
notwithstanding his almost princely liberality. In 1850 he 
received an honorary degree from Laporte Medical College, 
Indiana, 

Col. Otis Cooper, son of Dea. Sherman Cooper, was 
born in 1806. He worked on the farm during his minority, 
and from seventeen to twenty-one taught school during the 
winter season with much success. He took a deep interest 



S6 

in milimiT affairs, and rose to the rank of Colonel. He was 
unanimously chosen deacon of the Universalist Church of 
Croydon at its organization in 1S53. He held the office of 
Justice of the Peace for twenty years, and was one of the 
board of Selectmen. He resides on the old fiinn selected by 
his £Tandfather in 1772. He married Hannah, daui^hter of 
Ezekiel Powers. 

Hoy. Lemuel P. Cooper, son of Dea. Sherman Cooper, 
was bom July 18. 1S03. He has been one of the most 
sdentinc and thorough farmers in town. He was educated 
at Isewftort and Claremont Academies, taught school for 
more than twenty winters, and was long intrusted with the 
general management of the schools through town. In 1S31, 
he was married to Laura "VThipple, and had one son, Dr. 
Sherman Cooper, and two daughters, Maet and Ellen. 
The sisters were educated at Kimball Union Academy, and 
studied French at St. Marys, Canada East. They became 
so proficient as to be able to read and write the French with 
almost the same readiness as their native tongue. Like 
their father, they were successfnl teachers. Mary married 
CoL Alexander G-ardiner, of the 14th Regt. N. H. Vols., an 
eloquent and promising lawyer. Since the death of her 
husband, who died in the army, she has turned her attention 
to the study of the classics. EUen was invited to become 
the instructor of French at Brattleboro, Tt. Mr. Cooper 
was Selectman seven years, B.epresentative in 1S44 and 1S45, 
and State Senator in 1862 and 1863. 

Sherman Coopee, son of Hon. Lemuel P. Cooper, was 
bom Aug. 20, 1833. He received his academical education 



87 

at Meriden, N. H., studied medicine in New York City, 
and graduated at the New York Medical College in 1856. 
The following year he was deputy resident physician of 
Black well's Island Hospital. He settled at Claremont in 
1858. He entered the army in 1861, as Assistant Surgeon 
of the 6th Regt, N. H. Vols., but was promoted to the rank 
of Surgeon in March, 1863. At the end of three years, in 
1864, he returned to Claremont and resumed the practice of 
of his profession. 

John Cooper, son of Dea. John Cooper, came to Croydon 
in 1770, and died March 20, 1832. He was a soldier in the 
Eevolutionary army, and was active in the affairs of the 
town — for nine years one of the selectmen. 

John Cooper, son of John Cooper and Lydia Dodge 
Cooper, and grandson of Dea. John Cooper, one of the first 
settlers of Croydon, was born in Croydon, June 15, 1806, 
and was educated in the common school and at the domestic 
fireside. He is a farmer, but has devoted a portion of his 
time to teaching and other literary pursuits. He has been 
elected or appointed Superintending School Committee of 
Croydon sixteen times. 

In 1839 he prepared " An Historical Sketch of Croydon," 
which was published in the 6th Vol, of the Collections of 
the New Hampshire Historical Society; and in 1852 he 
revised the same and published it in pamphlet form. His 
other publications are his annual School Eeports and contri- 
butions for the periodical press. 

Alanson L, Cooper, son of Barnabas, and grandson of 
Dea. John Cooper, was born Oct. 16, 1804. He possessed 



88 

intellectual powers of the highest order. He studied medi- 
cine and graduated at Brunswick, Me., in 1827, after which 
he went to Europe, and during his absence spent several 
months attending hospital practice at Paris. He commenced 
practice at Auburn, N. Y,, where he died in 1841. As a 
poet, the few gems that have been preserved from his pen 
indicate a rare genius. 

Orville M. Coopeb, son of Joel, and grandson of Dea. 
Sherman Cooper, was born July 28, 1821. He studied 
medicine and graduated at Hanover in 1845. He com- 
menced practice at HoUis, N. H., where he died in 1847. 

Alanson Cooper, son of Silas and great-grandson of 
Dea. John Cooper, a Methodist clergyman of much talent 
and influence, is a Presiding Elder in the Montpelier Dis- 
trict, Vt., and is one of the Commissioners to locate the 
Methodist school. 

Elijah Cooper, an intelligent physician, was son of Hora- 
tio Cooper, and grandson of Nathaniel Cooper, the oldest 
son of Dea. John Cooper. He graduated at Dartmouth 
College. After completing his studies, he practiced for a 
while with decided success at Newport, N. H., but subse- 
quently removed to Columbus, Ohio, where he had an 
extensive practice for two years, when he removed to New- 
ark, in the same State, where he also had a practice extend- 
ing over a large section of country, but which so wrought 
upon his health that he abandoned it altogether in 1833, 
entered into a large mercantile business, and amassed a con- 
siderable fortune. He married the eldest daughter of Nicho- 



89 

las Farwell, of Claremont, by whom he had seven children. 
She died in 1847, and h« married her sister, the second 
daughter of Nicholas Farwell. In September, 1854, Dr. 
Cooper, his wife, a daughter four years old, and a servant in 
his family, died of cholera. The second daughter of Dr. 
Cooper married Maj. John L. Farwell, Cashier of Claremont 
National Bank. 

Keuben Cooper, son of Reuben, and grandson of Ezra 
Cooper, one of the first twelve settlers of the town, was one 
of the Committee of Arrangements, and is a thriving and 
industrious farmer. Married Cynthia, daughter of Joel, and 
granddaughter of Dea. Sherman Cooper. 

Nathaniel Cooper, son of Ezra Cooper, married Phebe 
Barton, eldest daughter of Benjamin Barton, Esq., and 
removed to Leon, Cattaraugus County, N. Y., where he occu- 
pied a prominent position, for a long time, doing the larger 
share of public business. His son John has many of the 
characteristics of his father,— has been Eepresentative, 
Supervisor, and held other of&ces. 

Dr. Reuben Carroll, a native of Sutton, Mass., came 
to. Croydon in 1792, and settled near the Four Corners. He 
was the first physician in town, and for more than forty 
years was a successful practitioner. In 1840, he was thrown 
from his carriage and killed. (See Oration of Dr. Stow.) 

Albert Carroll, son of Charles, and grandson of Fol- 
lansbee Carroll, one of the early settlers, is a physician now 
in practice at South Boston, Mass. 



90 

CTJTTIIsrO- 

JoNAS Cutting, Benjamin Cutting and Jonathan 
Cutting, sons of Francis Cutting, came early to this town 
from "Worcester, Mass., and settled on the banks of Sugar 
River, near the Newport line. From them have descended 
the Cuttings. 

Francis Cutting, son of Benjamin Cutting, has been an 
extensive dealer in cattle, sheep and horses. He was born 
May 14, 1793. He is one of the largest tax-payers in town 
and has raised up a large family of prosperous boys, all of 
whom have settled near him. 

Freeman Cutting, son of Francis Cutting, was born 
July 19, 1821. He was one of the Vice-Presidents on the 
day of Celebration, has raised up a large family, and been 
one of the most energetic and jirosjierous farmers in Sulli- 
van County. 

Francis M. Cutting and Shepherd H. Cutting, broth- 
ers of the above, both married daughters of Dimmick Baker, 
Esq., of Plainfield, and are among the most thriving farmers 
of Newport. 

Jonathan Cutting, son of Jonathan Cutting, early in 
life removed to Newport where he was extensively engaged 
in town business, and was an active and worthy deacon in 
the Baptist church. He was a man of " infinite jest." I will 
relate only one of the many anecdotes told of him. Once 
laboring for a man whose love of gain required his hands to 
be up, eat breakfast, and be miles away to the woods with 
an ox team before lisht, he wished to <nve him a jrentle re- 







./:rt^<^L^ -^6t. 



'^oCui-x, 



91 

minder that he was asking too much— which was done in this 
wise : When asked to pray one morning, he commenced thus : 
" We thank thee, Lord, that thou hast brought us in 
safety thus far through the night, and if in thy providence 
we are permitted to see the light of another day, may we go 
forth to its duties with a cheerful heart and in thy fear," &c. 
The next morning he was permitted to eat his breakfast 
by daylight. 

Jonas Cutting, LL. D,, son of Jonas Cutting and Betsey 
Eames Cutting, and grandson of Jonas, senior, was born in 
Croydon, on the 3d of November, 1800. He prepared for 
college, principally under the tuition of Otis Hutchins, then 
Principal of Kimball Union Academy in Plainfield, and 
entered the Freshman Class at Dartmouth College in 1819. 
He graduated in 1823, and subsequently read law, first with 
the late Hon. Henry Hubbard, of Charlestown, and the third 
year with Hon. Reuel Williams, at Augusta, Maine, where 
he was admitted to the bar in 1826. Thence he removed to 
the town of Orono, in Penobscot county, where he remained 
in the practice of his profession until October, 1831, when 
he removed to Bangor, the shire town of the same county. 

In 1833 he was married to Lucretia H., daughter of John 
Bennoch, Esq., of Orono. They had three daughters and 
one son, — the eldest, Rebecca D., died in infancy; the 
second, Elizabeth J., at the age of 15, and his son, Frederick 
H., in his 21st year. His only surviving child is Helen A., 
who is married to Dr. Augustus C. Hamlin, only son of Hon. 
Elijah L. Hamlin, brother of the late Vice-President. 

His wife, Lucretia, died in 1842. In 1843 he was again 
married to Ann R., youngest daughter of the late Hon. 



92 

Samuel Tales, of Taunton, Mass., with whom he now lives 
and resides in the city of Bangor. 

In 1854 Mr. Cutting was appointed Judge of the Supreme 
Judicial Court of his adopted State, and at the end of seven 
years, the duration of the judicial tenor, was re-appointed, 
which office he now holds. In 1858 his Alma Mater confer- 
red upon him the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. The 
following is his letter to the Committee of Arrangements : 

Bangor, May 7, 1866. 
Otis Cooper, Esq. — 

My Dear Sir: 

Your letter, extending an invitation to 
me to be present at the Centennial Celebration of the one 
hundredth anniversary of the settlement of my dear old 
Croydon, has been received. 

I cordially thank the Committee of Arrangements for their 
kind remembrance of one who will be present on that occa- 
sion, unless his official duties should call him elsewhere. A 
few of the committee I know personally, and the fathers of 
them all. The person selected to address you on that occa- 
sion I well know. He was a Samuel in his youth, and is a 
St. Paul in his maturity, " without these bonds." And how 
could it be otherwise ? He was born at the base of Croydon 
mountain, he on one side and the present Chief Justice of 
the U. S. Supreme Court on the other. There is no such 
mountain in New Hampshire. To say nothing of other 
natives whose eyes first opened to behold its grandeur and 
beauty, those two individuals do less to immortalize the 
mountain, than the mountain to immortalize them. Dear 
old mountain ! — had you been originally selected for the 
" garden of Eden," man would never have fallen. 

Yours truly, 

JONAS CUTTING. 



93 

Adolphus Cutting, a younger brother of Hon. Jonas 
Cutting, of Maine, studied medicine, and after graduating 
went West, where a decided success has attended both his 
professional and pecuniary efforts. 



Solomon Clement married Lucy, daughter of Dr. Reuben 
Carroll, and was for a while a successful merchant at the Four 
Corners, and a prominent citizen. He removed to Spring- 
field, N. H., where he occupied a leading position, — was 
chosen Representative. He subsequently engaged in manu- 
facturing business at Springfield, Vt. He died at Plainfield, 
N. H., in 1866. 



Capt. Nathan Clark, a joiner by trade, came to this 
town from Franklin, Mass., with a pack on his back, in 1787, 
and purchased him a farm on Baltimore Hill, and in 1788 
married Sabrina, eldest daughter of Samuel Metcalf of Fram- 
ingham. He made the first panel -door and window-sash in 
town. He gave much time and labor towards erecting the 
church in 1794, and was ever an active and liberal suj)port- 
er of the gospel. He died in 1855, at the advanced age of 
ninety years. Nathan, his second son, married Zelinda, 
daughter of Louis Yickery, an Italian, having much of the 
musical skill of his countrymen ; and in 1824 erected the 
Woolen Factory at the East Village. Amanda, only daugh- 
ter of Nathan, Jr., married Oscar F, Morril, a native of Deer- 



94 

ingj N. H., a man possessed of much inventive genius. He 
has taken out twenty patents, embracing nearly one hundred 
distinct claims. 



Capt. Prince Crosby, the father of the Crosbys, came to 
this town early, from Sturbridge, Mass., and settled near 
Newport line, south of the Flat. 

Hon. Orra Crosby, son of Prince Crosby, was bom Nov. 
14, 1793. He was the eldest of seven sons. Atsixteen he 
was apprenticed to Nathan Hurd, of Newport, to learn the 
cloth-dressing trade. At the expiration of his term of ser- 
vice, having attained his majority, he started on foot, with 
his pack on his back, for Hard wick, Yt. After laboring 
there at his trade for three years, he bought out the establish- 
ment and commenced business for himself At which time, 
April 28, 1818, he married Miss Julia Stevens. By indus- 
try, frugality and integrity he prospered in business and laid 
the foundation of a large fortune. He has been Representa- 
tive, Justice, Judge of the County Court, and a Director of 
the Danville Bank, a-nd is now President of the National 
Bank of Caledonia. As a financier, Judge Crosby has few 
equals. 

His eldest son, a much respected citizen, was engaged to 
some extent in public business, was a sheriff of the county, 
and died in 1866, deeply lamented. His third daughter 
married S. L. Wiswell, a physician of note at Cabot, Vt. 
His fourth daughter married A. J, Hyde, also a physician, 
who is doing a successful business in her native village. 



95 

Freeman Crosby, son of Capt. Prince Crosby^ is a sub- 
stantial farmer, residing at the Flat, was Kepresentative in 
1855 and 1858, and Selectman in 1842. He married Betsey, 
daughter of James Whipple, of Newport. 



Dr. William W. Darling, son of William Darling, was 
born Nov. 20, 1834. He obtained his education at Kimball 
Union and Thetford Academies; studied medicine with Dr. 
Thos. Sanborn, of Newport, and graduated at Dartmouth 
College, Nov. 9, 1859. Located at Sutton, N. H., April 9, 
1861, and removed to Goshen, N. H., Sept. 26, 1863. On 
the 21st of March, 1860, he was connected by marriage with 
Salona A. Pike, of Newport, N. H. 

Lucius Wesley Darling and Eli Darling, sons of 
Elijah Darling, a soldier in the war of 1812, and descendants 
of James and Huldah Cooper Hall,— the former residing at 
Newport and the latter at Hanover, now in the prime of 
life,— are among our most enterprising and prosperous 
farmers. 



William Dodge, son of Perley and Helena Cooper 
Dodge, and grandson on the mother's side of Dea. Sherman 
Cooper, was born in 1814. He was for a long time a Dep- 
uty Sheriff and Postmaster at the East Village. He re- 
moved to Claremont in 1854, where he now resides. 



96 

Amasa H. Dunbar, son of Sylvester and Hannah Powers 
Dunbar, born in 1807, early in life removed to Moravia, 
N. Y., where we have the amplest testimony of his neigh- 
bors showing he has been a most successful and popular 
teacher, and is a respected, and influential citizen. He has 
always taken a deep interest in educational matters, and has 
long been the director in the Moravian Institute. He is 
gifted with fine intellectual powers, is a good scholar, social 
and humorous. He became connected by marriage with one 
of the best families of his adopted village, and has two sons. 
His eldest son, George Ward Dunbar, graduated at Ho- 
bart College, Geneva, N. Y., and at the General Theological 
Seminary, N. Y. City, and is a successful clergyman of the 
Episcopal Church. The younger son is a trader in Buffalo, 
N. Y. Mr. D. is now engaged in improving text-books for 
the schools. 

Otis Dunbar, fifth son of Sylvester, born in 1812, is a 
talented clergyman at Holderness, N. H. Married Julia M. 
True. 

idtj:e?.:ec:b:e]. 

KuFUS DuRKEE, from whom have descended the Durkees, 
was son of Robert Durkee, and came from Brimfield, Ct. 
He married Polly, daughter of Thomas, and granddaughter 
of Moses Whipple, the early settler. He was a tanner by 
trade, and an original genius. 

EuEL DuRKEE, SOU of Rufus and Polly Whipple 
Durkee, and a descendant of Moses Whipple, Esq., was 






■^ 





97 

born in Croydon, July 14, 1807. He has ever resided in his 
native town. His early years were spent in obtaining an 
education in the common school, and in assisting to carry on 
a tannery. Later in life he has carried on extensive farming- 
operations, besides attending to much other business. 

In addition to the management of his own private con- 
cerns, he has acted a conspicuous part in the affairs of the 
town, and in the politics of New Hampshire. His native 
shrewdness and knowledge of human nature render him a 
valuable counselor among his neighbors and townsmen. He 
has represented the town twice in the State Legislature; 
and has been elected Selectman eighteen times, fifteen of 
which he has been chairman of the board. During the 
rebellion, the financial affairs of the town were managed 
with so much success by him and his associates, that the 
war expenses of Croydon were comparatively less than those 
of any other town in the State. In 1846 he was elected 
Road Commissioners, and in 1864 he was appointed Messen- 
ger to carry the electoral vote of New Hampshire to Wash- 
ington. 

As a politician he is known far beyond the limits of his 
native town. His opponents give him the credit of possessing 
a large share of sagacity; and they ascribe to him a controll- 
ing influence with the political party to which he belongs. 
And it will be admitted by all that for years his influence 
has been very sensibly felt in the councils of the Republican 
party of New Hampshire. 

Paine Durkee, son of Rufus, was born on the 7th day of 
October, 1817. He followed the vocation of his father, that 
of tanner, at the East Village until 1852, when he went to 



98 

California and worked in the mines one year. In March, 

1861, he was elected Representative of Croydon, and in 
September of the same year enlisted into the military 
service; was chosen First Lieutenant, and stationed at 
Fort Constitution in Portsmouth Harbor, He was detailed 
as Quarter Master, and acted in that capacity until May, 

1862, when the illness of his family obliged him to leave the 
service. In 1864 he again entered the service, enlisting into 
the First Regt. Heavy Artillery. He was chosen First 
Lieutenant of the 11th Co., and was stationed in the 
defenses of Washington; where he was again detailed as 
Quarter-Master, the duties of which office he performed 
with fidelity until the close of the war. In April, 1866, he 
was appointed Inspector of Customs at Portsmouth, N. H., 
which office he now holds. 

Lavina Durkee, feister of the foregoing, married John B. 
Stowell, Esq., and removed to Newport, where he became a 
prominent and influential man, and held many important 
offices. He afterwards removed to Manchester, N. H. 



iD"wi:sr:N"Erji_.. 

Amos, Ira and Cyrus Dwinnell were in the early days 
mechanics at the Flat. 



Stephen Eastman was a cloth-dresser by trade, resided 
at the Flat, and for many years took a conspicuous part in 
the affairs of the town. He was for a long time a leading 
Justice, for a dozen years Selectman, and Representative in 



101 

Gen. Nathan Emery, an active and successful farmer, 
was noted for his public spirit, and more especially for his 
zeal and interest in the militia. He passed through all the 
various grades from private to Major General, and contrib- 
uted liberally both of time and money to maintain the 
honor of the institution. He married Esther Hagar, a lady 
of excellent judgment. He died at the Flat — whither he 
had removed to spend his declining years — in 1857, aged 65 
years. 



Herschel Foster, clergyman at Fairlee, Vt., born in 
1801, is son of Lemuel and Chloe Powers Foster, and on 
the mother's side grandson of Ezekiel Powers. 

David Frye, the father of the Fryes, came to this town 
from Worcester County, Mass., and settted in the west part 
of the town, near the Mountain. 



John Ferrin married Hannah Jacobs, daughter of 
Whitman Jacobs, and after devoting several years to farm- 
ing in Croydon, removed to Morristown, Vt., where he 
carried on a successful mercantile business, and where he 
occupied a prominent position in town. He was Represent- 
ative two years, and an active justice until his death. He 



102 

was a man of large physical and mental endowments. His 
eldest son, Whitman W., is a distinguished lawj'er at 
Montpelier; and his second son, Harrison, a worthy 
farmer, has been a Representative from Morristown. 



Rev. Luther Jacobs Fletcher, son of David Fletcher, 
was born Nov. 25, 1818. His father was a blacksmith by 
trade, and he, the youngest son, was the "heir apparent" to 
the bellows and the anvil; but his love for books was stronger 
than the paternal decree. He pursued his preparatory stud- 
ies at Unity Academy, and graduated at the Norwich Uni- 
versity, 1841. In 1842 he was settled as pastor of the 
Universalist church in Surry, N. H. The year after, he was 
chosen Principal of the Mount Cfesar Seminary at Swanzey, 
but the duties of his two-fold office proving too severe for 
him, after three years service he removed to Brattleboro, 
A^t.; from thence he was called to Cambridge, Mass., and 
soon after to Lowell, where he labored for four years. 

Here pecuniary considerations induced him to turn his 
attention to the law. In this profession also he was quite suc- 
cessful. His clear head, ready talent, and eloquent tongue, 
made him quite popular. At the end of three years he was 
appointed Commissioner of Insolvency, and soon after eleva- 
ted to the position of Judge. When this court was united 
with that of the Probate, he re-entered the ministry, and 
returned to his old society at Lowell. He remained there 
but three years, when he was called to settle in the city of 
Brooklyn, but the health of his son induced him to remove 
to Bath, Me., where he is now settled over a large society. 



103 

He has published a Service- Book and a series of text-books 
which are quite popular, and is now publishing a work enti- 
tled, Gloria P atria, consisting of Prayers, Chants and 
Liturgical services for public worship. He was a member of 
the House of Representatives of Massachusetts, in 1856, in 
which body he took an active and leading part. 

Cyiius Kingsbuky Fletcher, second son of Timothy 
Fletcher — who was for a long time a worthy, gifted and zeal- 
ous deacon of the Baptist Church at Newport — was one of 
the Committee of Arrangements, and is a most worthy and 
exemplary farmer. He married Rachel Jacobs, daughter of 
Luther, and resides on the old "Jacobs Farm," so long occu- 
pied by her grandfather. Whitman Jacobs. 



o-iBsonsr. 

William Gibson, one of the early settlers of the town, 
married Abigail Sanger, a daughter of Isaac Sanger. They 
had eight children. The following includes those of the 
family, in part, who have tui-ned their attention to literary 
and professional pursuits. 

WiLLARD P. Gibson, son of William, born September 2, 
1798, studied medicine and graduated at Castleton, Vt., in 
1822; spent fifteen years in the practice of his profession at 
Newport and elsewhere, and then turned his attention to 
theology. He died October 23, 1837, four days after his 
ordination. 

Otis Gibson, son of William, was born June 8, 1807; 
studied medicine, graduated at Woodstock, Vt., in 1830, 
and settled at Wellsboro, Pa. * 



104 

Alanson, son of Gardner, and grandson of William, was 
a clergyman. Is now deceased. 

Austin, sou of Samuel and Susan Gibson Putnam, clergy- 
man. (See Sketch.) 

BusHKOD Rice and Gardner Winslow, sons of Will- 
iam Gibson, were both physicians. The former died at 
Pomfret, Vt., many years since; the latter entered the army 
as an officer, and was killed at Cold Harbor. 

Of the children of Winslow Gibson, Otis is a missionary 
at Fuh Chau in China; Henry graduated at the New York 
Medical College and went to China, where he died; Gard- 
ner, clergyman, resides at Moira, N. Y.; Franklin, clergy- 
man, died in Connecticut. 

Lizzie and Mary W. F., daughters of Willard P. Gibson, 
made literature a profession. The latter has for several 
years past resided in Europe, where, besides publishing sev- 
eral books, she has contributed much both of prose and 
poetry to the magazines. 

Willard Putnam and Otis Lloyd, sons of John Gibson, 
are both clergymen. 

Lewis W., a clergyman, and Otis, a physician, are sons 
of Otis Gibson. 



CB-OI-.IDTIIAAT'^IT. 
Samuel Goldthwait came to this town from North- 
bridge, Mass., in 1780, and settled in the north-westerly 
part of the town; was an extensive and wealthy farmer; 
was a Representative and Selectman, and took an active part 



105 

in the construction of the " Croydon Turnpike." He died 
at the advanced age of 93. 

Capt. Zina GrOLDTHwAiT, SOU of Samuel, was born Nov. 
6, 1787, commenced on the homestead, and was an extensive 
and tidy farmer, kept a dairy of fifty cows. He was a high- 
toned, exemplary man, gentlemanly in his bearing, and quite 
a favorite. While in town he held many offices. He removed 
to Newport, where he has been elected to many important 
town offices, and been a leading member of the Baptist 
Church. He married Anna, daughter of Col. Henry 
Howard. 



C3rCDCDlD^WXJ<T. 

Israel Goodwin, remembered by many for his clear 
intellect and social qualities, resided at the Flat, and in his 
earlier days worked at cloth-dressing. He married Miss 
Betsey Melendy, and about the year 1824 removed to Plain- 
field, Vt., where he occupied a prominent position; was 
Representative two years, and State Senator two years. 
He was appointed Judge and removed to Montpelier, where 
he died. He exerted a wide influence, and was esteemed 
one of the most correct and competent business men in the 
county. 



a-"crsTi:sr. 

Dr. Ezra Gustin, son of Ezra Gustin, studied medicine 
with Dr. Elias Frost, of Plainfield, and after three years of 
most successful practice in his native town, died November 



106 

29, 1818, aged 30 years. As a teacher he was much beloved. 
As a man he was possessed of superior judgment, self-reliant, 
energetic, and much a favorite. He married Anna Hold- 
brook, daughter of David, who survived him but one year — 
left one child, the late Mrs. Lewis Richardson, who died in 
1858. 



Lieut. Edwaed Hall came to town during the Revolu- 
tion, bringing with him seven sons — Ezekiel, Abijah, James, 
Edward, John, Darius and Ezra — and settled on the flat, 
south of the farm of J. Nutting. From this family and 
Rev. Samuel Read Hall have descended the Halls. The 
family were shrewd, and fond of amusements. 

Abijah Hall, remembered for his capital jokes and un- 
fathomed resource of fun and anecdote, was drowned near 
the Glidden Bridge. 

Capt. Amasa Hall, son of Abijah Hall, was born Feb. 
7, 1789; married Rebecca L. Melendy in 1811. He was an 
active business man and one of our most successful farmers. 
He was distinguished for energy and decision of character, 
a clear head and ready judgment. He belonged to that 
portion of Croydon which was subsequently set off to Gran- 
tham. He was a Captain in the war of 1812; was Select- 
man of Grantham for eight years; Representative from 
Croydon in 1824 and 1825, and from Grantham in 1832, 
'34, '35, and '36; Road Commissioner in 1841, and a Direct- 
or in Sugar River Bank from its first organization until 
1861. He was an influential member of the Congregational 
Church. In 1858 he retired from active business. 



107 

Adolphus Hall, only son of Amasa Hall, was born 
December 7, 1811; married Sally Leavitt, daughter of Dud- 
ley, and sister of Dr. Nathaniel Leavitt. Like his father 
he was a successful business man. He was bred a farmer, 
but since 1861 has been engaged in mercantile business. 
He was Selectman of Grantham in 1859 and 1862, Kepre- 
sentative in 1860 and 1861, and County Treasurer in 1865 
and 1866. 

Daniel R. Hall, son of Abijah Hall, and grandson of 
Lieut. Edward Hall, was born July 3, 1802. He took 
much interest in the militia; was an efficient officer in the 
"Croydon Eifle Company;" was Colonel of the 31st Regi- 
ment, and Brigade Inspector under Gren. Nathan Emery. 
He was Town Clerk ten years. Selectman in 1855, and 
Representative in 1862 and 1863. He is a Director in the 
First National Bank at Newport. As a Justice he has for 
many years done most of the business in his section of the 
town. He married Martha, daughter of James Perkins. 

Horace P. Hall, son of Col. Daniel R. Hall, was born 
August 5, 1827. He fitted for college at Marlow and Kim- 
ball Union Academies. After spending two years at Mid- 
dletown College, Ct., and another at Amher^ College, Mass., 
he abandoned his studies on account of ill health, and went 
West. He was for two years Principal of Marshall Academy, 
111., for seven a Professor of Latin in Union College at 
Merom, Indiana, and is now Principal of the Academy at 
Pendleton, Indiana. He was for a time connected with the 
army. In 1863 the Asbury University conferred on him the 
honorary degree of Master of Arts. 

James Hall, son of James and Huldah Cooper Hall, was 
for many years an enterprising farmer and merchant in 



108 

Oroydon, but removed to Newport, where he now resides, 
and where lie has been elected to many offices, and has 
exerted a wide influence. 



John Hall, son of James Hall, Esq., and grandson of 
James Hall, Sr., was born in October, 1813; studied medicine 
with his uncle Albina Hall; graduated at Brunswick, Me., 
and commenced the practice of his profession at Newark, 
Ohio, where he died. His two daughters, Julia and Mary, 
are both well educated and accomplished teachers. 

Albina Hall and Lyman Hall, sons of James Hall, 
after spending most of their minority in town, turned their 
attention to medicine. The former married Livia Powers, 
and after practicing awhile in Maine and New York has 
returned to Croydon. The latter followed his profession at 
Cornish Flat until his death, which occurred but a few years 
since. 

Ahira Hall, son of James Hall, removed to Chau- 
tauque County, western New York, where he was an active 
Justice. His soji John, a wealthy lawyer, has been a mem- 
ber of the Assembly of the State. James, a physician, was 
surgeon in the army, and died in the service. Albina, a 
clergyman, is settled at Girard, Pa. 

Capt. Edward Hall, son of Lieut. Edward Hall, opened 
the first store of note in town. It was situated on the top 
of the swell of land between East Village and Four Cor- 
ners. He is remembered as a shrewd, prosperous trader. 
He died March 14, 1817, aged 57 years. 



109 

Calvin Hall, son of Capt. Edward Hall, a popular man 
and extensive farmer, after enjoying many honors in his 
native town, removed to Lowell, Mass., where he now resides. 

Nathan Hall, son of Edward Hall, Jr., is an independ- 
ent farmer residing at the Flat. He was Chief Marshal at 
the Celebration, has been many years elected to town offices, 
and is now a Commissioner for Sullivan County. 

George Hall, son of Edward Hall, Jr., was on board 
the Cumberland during its fight with the Merrimac, and 
swam to the boat when it went down. The British and 
French ships were by, as witnesses of the conflict. The 
Captain saw what the result must be, and inquired of his 
men, " Shall we strike colors and save life, or fight on ?" 
The gallant crew replied, " We can be shot, or sunk in the 
ocean, but surrender — never." 

Pliny Hall, son of Martin, and grandson of Capt. 
Edward Hall, was born Sept. 21, 1817. At the age of 
seven, on the death of his father, he went to live with his 
uncle Calvin Hall, and labored on the farm until he was 
twenty-one. In 1842 he entered the store of Euel Durkee, 
Esq., where he was principal clerk for nine years, and was 
chief clerk to his successor for three years. He then return- 
ed to farming, which occupation he has since followed. He 
was appointed U. S. Assistant 'Census Marshal in 1850 ; 
w-as elected Eepresentative in 1851 and 1852, and County 
Treasurer in 1855 and 1856. He was appointed one of the 
Committee on the Apportionment of the Public Taxes, in 
June, 1852, and U. S. Enrolling Officer in 1864. 



no 

Capt. Ariel Hall, son of Darius Hall, married Ase- 
nalh, daughter of Capt. John Humphry, and after operating 
awhile in town removed to Williamstown, Vt., where he 
now resides and is carrying on extensive farming business. 

Capt. Worthen Hall, son of Darius, and grandson of 
Lt. Edward Hall, was born July 11,1802. He had few 
early advantages ; until he was twenty-five years of age he 
struggled against all the embarrassments which a deficient 
education, poor health, poverty and ill-luck, could throw in 
his pathway. In 1827 he went to sea in a whaling vessel, 
before the mast, as a common sailor. He was adapted to 
the business, and was regularly promoted at the end of each 
successive voyage, until the fall of 1837, when he became 
Master of the ship, which position he held for eighteen 
years, until he left the sea. He has circumnavigated the 
earth twice, doubled Cape Horn six times, and the Cape of 
Grood Hope as many more ; has killed five hundred whales, 
and brought home more than twenty-two thousand barrels 
of oil. Aug. 1, 1837, he was married to Polly D. Lovewell, 
who was with him some ten years at sea, two of which she 
spent at the Sandwich Islands. He was elected a Director 
of the Sugar River Bank, and is now a director in the First 
National Bank at Newport, and was chosen Representative 
from his native town in 1866. He was generous to his con- 
nections, and retired with a fortune. His present affluence 
and luxury presents a pleasipg contrast with his early pover- 
ty, and affords to the young another example illustrating 
the truth that early indigence and embarrassments are no 
insurmountable barrier to success in after-life. 

While at sea, a most thrilling incident occurred : Mary, 
his darling and only daughter, while at play, fell overboard. 




4P V 



^: 



112 

Samuel Eead Hall, son of Rev. Samuel R. Hall, was 
born Oct. 27, 1795. He was educated at home, and at the 
Academies of Bridgeton, Mc., and at Plainfield, N. H. He 
studied theology, was licensed to preach in 1822, and was 
ordained over the church at Concord, Vt., in 1823. In 1830 
he was appointed principal of the English Department in 
Philips Academy at Andover, Mass. In 1837, took charge 
of the Holmes Plymouth Academy at Plymouth, ]!Sr. H., 
and in 1840 was installed pastor of the Congregational 
Church at Craftsbury, Vt. He has been an extensive au- 
thor, having published some fifteen or twenty volumes on 
various subjects. In 1838 the degree of M. A. was conferred 
on him by Dartmouth College. 

Rev. Jacob Haven, son of David Haven, was born at 
Framingham, Mass., April 25, 1763. He graduated at 
Harvard College in 1785, studied theology with Rev. Mr, 
Kellogg of his native town, and was ordained and settled at 
Croydon, June 18, 1788. As a preacher, his sermons were 
always terse and logical, and his oratory solemn and impressive. 
He was Town Clerk thirty-one years. He died March 17, 
1845, at the advanced age of eighty-two years. As he was the 
first, and for more than half a century almost the only clergy- 
man in town, he is, and will long continue to be recollected 
with much interest — and few men have a better claim to 
the remembrance of their townsmen. (See also speech of 
Dr. Stow.) 

Whipple Haven, a brother of the above, married Judith 
Stow, an aunt of Baron Stow; was a cabinet maker at the 







i/^^r^. 



113 

East Village^ and is remembered as a worthy man and good 
mechanic. 

Hannah Haven, daughter of Rev. Jacob Haven, and 
second wife of Simeon Wheeler, was born April 28, 1795, and 
died at Newport, Dec. 20, 1842. She was an intelligent and 
well educated lady, and much beloved by her associates. She 
was the mother of several children, some of whom survived her 
and partake of the mental and moral qualities which distin- 
guished her. Jacob W., a young man of much promise, and 
a printer and editor by profession, died in 1853. Lucy P. 
married Frederick Stevens, Esq., and resides with her husband 
and young family in Minnesota. Hannah, her youngest 
surviving daughter, married Austin Corbin, Esq., for- 
merly of Newport. He was for some years a successful law- 
yer and banker in Iowa, and is at present a banker in the 
city of New York. The family resides in Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Miranda Haven, youngest child of Eev. Jacob and 
Asenath Haven, was born March 8, 1799, married William 
Armes, Esq., of Stanstead, Canada East. They afterwards 
removed to Sherbrook, C. E., where he died and where his 
widow still remains. They had six children. Adeline 
Asenath married Samuel Tusk, of Sherbrook. Miranda 
married Thomas Goldsmith, a successful goldsmith at Troy, 
N. Y. Adelia married John McNeil, and Calista Lem- 
uel Farewell, both residing at Sherbrook. William, the 
son, went to California. 

Amos Hagar married Sarah Powers and settled on the 
Hagar place, opposite the C. K. Fletcher farm, and was the 
man from whom have descended the Hasars. 



114 

Leander Hole rook, son of Peter, and grandson of David 
Holbrook, was born April 11, 1815. The family came from 
Upton, Mass. His father, a merchant at the East Village, 
died in 1822. Owing to a want of proper management in 
the settlement of his estate, the son was left penniless. At 
the age of seventeen, he left the fiirm and prepared for col- 
lege, defraying his expenses by teaching, after which he 
studied law. He attended the Law School at Harvard 
College, Mass. Was admitted to the bar in 1846, and 
soon after opened an office at Milford, Mass., where he now 
resides. 

s:-cr3v/::ps:i^.ir. 

John Humphry came to this town early from Hingham, 
Mass., and settled on the east slope of the Pinnacle on the 
farm now occupied by his son Piam. He was a substantial 
farmer. Of his children, Nathaniel and Piam, both excel- 
lent farmers, remain near the homestead, while Leavitt, a 
blacksmith, John and George removed to the Flat. Susan 
was a noted tailoress. Many a boy " with shining morn- 
ing face," has tripped to school with a lighter heart for 
the " new spencer" which " Aunt Susan" has made him. 
Lydia married the Hon. Moses Humphry, of Concord, and 
Asenath married Capt. Ariel Hall, of Williamstown, Vt. 

Moses Humphry was born at Hingham, Mass., in 1807. 
At the age of twenty-four he was married to Lydia Hum- 
phry, daughter of John Humphry, one of the early settlers 
of Croydon. At fourteen he commenced going to sea, and 



/ 115 

at nineteen was appointed Master of a vessel, which posi- 
tion he held until he left the sea at the age of twenty-five. 
He was the first man that commenced the manufacture of 
mackerel kits by machinery, which business he has pursued 
with ever-increasing energy since, at Hingham, at Croydon 
nine years, and now at Concord. In 1853, when Concord 
adopted the city charter, he was elected to the City Council, 
and was re-elected in 1854, of which body he was President. 
In 1855 and 1856, he was elected one of the Aldermen; in 
1857 and 1858 was Representative; in 1861 was elected 
Mayor and held the office two years; was again elected to 
the same office in 1865, and declined a re-election the 
following year. In 1865 he was appointed one of the 
Trustees of the State Reform School, which office he now 
holds. 

Denison Humphry, son of Leavitt, one of the Commit- 
tee of Arrangements, is a farmer and trader at the Flat, 
and has been Selectman, and a Representative two years. 
Like his father and other members of the family, he was 
noted for superior mechanical skill. 

Stillman Humphry, son of John Humphrj^, Jr., was 
born November 15, 1833; worked on the farm until he was 
seventeen years of age, three years in a cooper's shop, three 
years as a clerk in a store at West Concord, and two years 
as clerk in a hardware store at Concord, N. H. In 1858 he 
formed a business connection with Mr. David A. Warde, 
under the style of Warde & Humphry, and commenced the 
hardware trade at Concord, where he has since remained, 
proving one of the most popular and thriving merchants in 
the State. In 1857 he was married to Miss Virtaline C. 



116 

Hall, of Maine. Like many of the sons of Croydon, his 
parents "were poor, but honest and respectable. Their pray- 
ers and blessings, added to his own resolute will, constituted 
his origrifial stock in trade. 



William Henry Hurd, oldest son of Henry and Abigail 
Gibson Hurd, was born at Croydon on the 30th of August, 
1829. Fitted for college at Kimball Union Academy; 
studied medicine with Dr. McQuestion, of Washington, and 
Dr. Justus Hurd, of Mississippi; attended lectures at 
Cincinnati Medical College, and graduated from Hanover in 
1854. He commenced practice at Wells River, Vt., but 
removed to Ashton, Canada West, where he remained until 
1858. He then removed to Carleton Place, Canada West, 
where he now resides. He was married May 10, 1859, to 
Miss Rosalind Rosamond, daughter of James Rosamond, 
banker of Almonte, Canada West. 

WiLLARD Otis Hurd, son of Henry Hurd, was born 
December 7, 1838. Studied medicine with his brother. Dr. 
W. H. Hurd, at Ashton, Canada West, and graduated at 
the Albany Medical College in 1860. He was connected 
with his brother in practice at Carleton Place, Canada West, 
until July, 1863, when he enlisted into the U, S. Army; 
was commissioned Assistant Surgeon in the 83d Regt. N. Y. 
Vols., and on the mustering out of that regiment in 1864, 
was transferred to the 97th N. Y. Vols. In the autumn of 
1865, he commenced practice in Grantham, N. H., where he 
now resides. In August, 1866, he was married to Miss 
Randilla W. Howard, of that place. 



117 

Charles Eugene Hurd, son of Henry Hard, was bom in 
Croydon, June 15, 1833. He became connected editorially 
witli the "Tribune," a semi-weekly journal published at 
Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, in 1856. At the end of two years 
he returned to Boston and devoted himself mainly to report- 
ing and writing for the press. In 1864 he became connected 
with the " Leader," a Sunday morning paper published in 
Boston. In September, 1865, he became city editor for the 
" Erie Dispatch," at Erie, Pa., and now occupies the chair of 
Associate Editor on the same journal. 



JosiAH Ide, son of Daniel Ide, one of the early settlers, 
deserves a remembrance as one of the most worthy and 
respected farmers in town. 

Cr^OOBS. 
Whitman Jacobs, son of Kev. Whitman Jacobs, of 
Koyalston, Mass., came to Croydon about the year 1777, 
and settled near the south line of the town, south of C. K. 
Fletcher's farm, but subsequently built where Mr. Fletcher 
now lives. From him have descended the Jacobses. He was 
a shrewd financier, and died possessed of a large estate. 

His son Luther settled on Stow Hill, and left quite a 
family. Eli married Jerusha Whipple and removed to 
Vermont, and was a worthy deacon and valuable citizen. 
Hannah married John Ferrin. 

Paul Jacobs, son of Whitman Jacobs, was born in 1783. 
He married Prudence, daughter of Jonah Stow. He was 



118 

a man of great energy of character, and was eminently 
jiractical in his views. He was one of the largest and best 
farmers in town, often kept a dairy of thirty cows, and other 
stock in proportion. He brought to town several choice 
breeds of cattle and sheep. He was the main instrument in 
getting the river-road through from the Flat to the East 
Village — a deed that entitles his memory to the respect of 
all after-generations of his townsmen. He built a factory at 
the Flat for the manufacture of potato starch. The same 
year in which he died — not living to quite complete the 
work — he built the church at the Flat, at his own expense, 
at a cost of some two thousand dollars, and gave it to the 
Universalist Society — thus attesting both his religious faith 
and his generosity. He was Selectman in 1832, and Eepre- 
sentative in 1831 and 1835. He died September 16, 1854, 
aged 71 years. 



:ke:m::f>toi^. 

Ephraim Kempton, the father of the Kemptons, came 
early to Croydon and purchased some four hundred acres of 
land, covering all the grounds where the Flat is now situa- 
ted, and built near the residence of Capt. Nathan Hall. He 
never attained to great wealth, and was unassuming in his 
manners. 

Rollins A. Kempton, fifth son of Col. Calvin Kempton, 
was born Oct. 29, 1826. In addition to the district school, 
he received the instructions of his father at home, who was 
an experienced and most faithful teacher, and had been for 
thirty years Superintending School Committee of the town. 




^vS 




,^^^^^u^ ...^^^^^.-.^^r 




119 

His early life was full of poverty and discouragements. At 
the tender age of nine years he followed his mother to her 
grave, and was thus deprived of her guardian care and sym- 
pathy. His father had been a large farmer and extensive 
wool-grower, but the revulsions of 1837 swept away his for- 
tune and left him a poor man, with a large family, and hard 
labor and few privileges was the lot of the son. At twenty- 
one, with a coarse freedom suit, a five-dollar gold piece, and 
a father's blessing, he started out in the world. He first 
went to Lowell, but here his utmost labor would barely pay 
his board. So, one pleasant morning, with seventy-five 
cents in his pocket — all the money he had left after paying 
his bills — he started for Lawrence, and his trip to the " new 
city " represents most graphically the discouragements which 
sometimes beset a young man while starting out in the 
world : Arriving there he found he had no friends, no 
money, and no employment. For two days he sought most 
earnestly for something to do, — battling against rain, and 
cold, and hunger, — and every step had been a failure, and 
he had been to Methuen and met there the same result. At 
the end of that time however, nothing daunted, he returned 
to Lowell full of " pluck," determined " to be somebody " 
yet. He subsequently learned the joiner's trade. In 1851, 
he married Maria J. Reed, of Northfield, Vt,, and com- 
menced business at Lawrence. At the end of eleven years 
he owned eight double tenement houses, and a steam mill, 
and had been a member of the city government. In 1862 
he removed to Boston, where he now resides, and is a part- 
ner in three dry goods stores, with an estimated property of 
nearly one hundred thousand dollars — illustrating in his life 
the truth of the old maxim that, " A bad beginning makes 
a good ending." 



120 

WiLLARD C. Kempton, son of Col. Calvin Kempton, 
was born Oct. 13, 1840. He labored on the farm at home 
until 1858. He then attended school at Newport and Kim- 
ball Union Academies until 1861, when he commenced the 
study of medicine with his uncle, Dr. W. Clough, of Pitts- 
field, Mass. He attended lectures at Berkshire and Hano- 
ver Medical Colleges. He went to the war as a hospital 
steward, but was subsequently appointed successively As- 
sistant Surgeon of a colored regiment, of the second Reg. 
N, H. Vols., and of the Freedmen's Bureau. He married 
Elvira M. Johnson, of Springfield, N. H., and is now in the 
practice of his profession at Mansfield, Kansas. 

Silas Kempton, son of Jeremiah, and grandson of 
Ephraim, the first settler ; after carrying on a successful 
tanning and shoe business at the Flat, removed to Newport, 
where he is now engaged in farming. 

Jonas C. Kempton, son of Ephraim^ and grandson of 
Ephraim senior, the early settler of the town, removed to 
Nashua and became a confectioner. He has amassed a for- 
tune and been twice honored by his adopted city with a seat 
in the Legislature. 



Wm. Wallace Kidder, son of Amos and Lucinda Bar- 
ton Kidder, was born Aug. 11, 1845, studied medicine with 
Williams Barton, M. D.; was with Capt. Ira McL. Barton, 
as orderly in the 5th Reg. N. H. Vols., and also in the 9th 
Res. N. H. Vols. 



121 

LO'VEiE^.insr. 

John Loverin came to this town from Springfield, 
N. H.; married a sister of Capt. Edward Hall, settled on 
the Gr. W. Cain place, and died a wealthy farmer. 

Kimball Loverin, son of John, has been a successful 
farmer. 



Samuel Marsh, from whom have descended the Marshes, 
came early to town and settled near the Four Corners. His 
wife, who had long lived in the family of a physician, and 
had become skilled in the " healing art," kept the first prim- 
itive "Apothecary's Shop" in town. Besides her knowledge 
of medicine she was noted for her mechanical ingenuity. 
The old " dies," with which she used to print the ladies' 
calico dresses, are still in being, as also the "pillion" on 
which she visited her patients. The husband died in 1832, 
aged 94; the wife in 1834, aged 90 years. 

Samuel Marsh, Jr., was father of Elom, one of the 
Vice-Presidents at the Celebration, a successful farmer at 
Westmoreland, N. H., — of John L. who moved to Jefferson 
County, N. Y., where he has been elected a Kepresentative 
and exerted much influence, and Orren who was educated at 
Norwich University and went to Oregon. 

Dellavan D. Marsh, son of William, and grandson of 
Samuel, was born May 8, 1818. He studied medicine with 
Willard P. Gibson, of Newport, and John S. Blanchard, of 
Cornish; attended lectures at Woodstock, Yt., and at Han- 
over, N. H., and graduated from the latter institution in 



122 • 

1834. He commenced practice at Mount Desert, Me., the 
same year, but in 1837 returned to Croydon, where he has 
since remained in the practice of his profession. He has 
taken a deep interest in agriculture. He introduced the 
North Devon cattle, and in 1848 was Treasurer of the Coun- 
ty Agricultural Society. He has been often elected to town 
offices, and in 1839 and 1840 was elected Treasurer of Sul- 
livan County. His daughters are graduates from Meriden. 

Wm. H. Maesh, a brother, is a merchant in Boston. 



iivnEijEnsri:)"^*. 

Ebenezer and John Melendy, twins, came to this 
town from Worcester County, Mass., and were among the 
earliest settlers. 

William E. Melendy, son of Sibley, a soldier in the 
war of 1812, was born Jan. 2, 1819. In 1845, he removed 
to Springfield, N. H., where he shared in a good degree the 
confidence of the community. He was Postmaster six 
years, Selectman two, and Eepresentative two. Since 1853, 
he has been engaged in mercantile business. In 1863, he 
moved to West Andover, N. H., where he now resides. He 
married Martha P., daughter of Ziba Cooper. 

Elbridge and Alonzo Melendy, sons of John, after 
struggling against all the embarrassments of early poverty, 
settled at Cohoes, N. Y., where they have met with a deserv- 
ed success. Alonzo carried off the medals at scliool, and 
fitted himself for a successful teacher — studying by the 
light of pine knots gathered in the woods. 



123 

Samuel Merrill, the father of the Merrills, married 
Fannie Bancroft, a great-aunt of George Bancroft the his- 
torian. She is still living. He died in 1827, leaving a large 
family of small children. 

Joshua B. and Sherburn Merrill, sons of Samuel 
Merrill, spent the earlier part of their lives at the homestead, 
east of Spectacle Pond. To their early struggles with pov- 
erty they owe much of those resolute wills, which have 
enabled them to make after-progress in the business world. 
The former has for several years represented Barnstead in 
the Legislature, and the latter has represented Colebrook. 

Seneca Merrill, a younger brother, connected with 
Sherburn in business at Colebrook, where they have become 
wealthy, has held several county offices. One of the daugh- 
ters married William B, Leavitt, a scientific man and 
astronomer at Grantham. . 

Samuel Metcalf, after serving in the French and Eev- 
olutionary armies for seven years, came to this town from 
Franklin, Mass., and settled at Brighton, and was the pro- 
genitor of the Metcalf family in town. 

Dea. Abel Metcalf, his oldest son, settled in Newport, 
and was the father of Kev. Kendrick Metcalf, Episcopal 
clergyman at Geneva, N. Y., and Professor in the Geneva 
College, — of Silas, a successful farmer and man of political 
note at Newport, and of Theron, a popular merchant in 
Boston. 



124 

Capt. Obed Metcalf, his second son, was active in town 
and church affairs, was father of Stephen, a prominent 
farmer at Haverhill, N. H., and grandfather of Henry H., 
a lawyer, and Carlos G-., physician, sons of Joseph. 

Samuel Metcalf, his third son, was father to Alexan- 
der, a wealthy farmer and justice at Northfield, Min., who 
married Anna, eldest daughter of Col. Nathaniel Wheeler, 
and grandfather of Samuel Metcalf Wheeler, a distin- 
guished lawyer at Dover, N. H. 



Samuel Morse, Esq., a native of Dublin, N. H., grad- 
uated at Dartmouth College in 1811, and studied law with 
Hon. Geo, B. Upham, of Claremont, He came to Croydon 
in 1815, and opened the first and only law office ever in 
town. He was Eepresentative for the year 1834, and a 
delegate to the Constitutional Convention in 1850. He 
died Jan 1, 1865, aged 81 years. 

isTELSonsr. 

John Nelson, one of the early settlers, lived on the 
turnpike north of Four Corners; was intrusted to some 
extent with the management of town affairs, and has many 
descendants. 

nsTE^WTonsr. 

Phineas Newton, one of the early settlers, lived in the 
famous " Old Stone House," on the glebe lot south of the 
original Whitman Jacobs place. 



125 

Jeeemiah Newell, one of the early comers to Croydon, 
settled at Eyder Corner, .and was an extensive farmer, tidy, 
energetic and proud. His ''Each," the first in town, was 
an object of great interest to the "little folks." He was 
father to Jeremiah, who was for a long time a popular 
sheriff at Newport, — of Parker N., merchant at Newport, 
and now at Princeton, 111., — of Benjamin, merchant 
and speculator, also at Princeton, 111., and grandfather of 
Thankful M., daughter of David, a lady of uncommon 
energy and business talent — late wife of Shepherd L. Bow- 
ers, Esq., of Newport. 

Elisha and Simeon Partridge came from Franklin, 
Mass., and were among the first settlers. The former married 
a sister of Timothy Winter and settled on Winter Hill. 
The latter settled on the B. Brown place, near the Flat. 
They were valuable citizens, and occupied honorable posi- 
tions in town. 

Elisha Partridge, son of Elisha, is a farmer, and has 
much musical talent. 

Luke Paul, son of Daniel, came into Croydon at twenty- 
two years of age, and married Sally Cooper, daughter of 
Samuel Cooper, and settled on the " old Gibson farm," on 
Baltimore Hill, and was an enterprising and prosperous 
farmer. 



126 

Marshall Perkins, son of James Perkins — who came 
to Croydon from Leominster, Mass., in 1815, and built the 
grist-mill, saw-mill and carding-machine at the Flat, and 
who was for many years a successful business man — was born 
May 13, 1823. He studied medicine and graduated at 
Cambridge Medical College, in 1850, at the head of his 
class. He soon after settled at Marlow, N. H., where he 
now resides, and is doing a successful business. He married 
a daughter of Amos Fisk, Esq., the leading merchant of 
Marlow. He was for three years during the war Assistant 
Surgeon in the 14th Kegt. N. H. Vols. 



David Putxam and Caleb Putnam came to this town 
from Sutton, Mass., among the early emigrants, and settled 
on the south-east slope of the Pinnacle, in a locality long 
known as the " Salt Box." They were noted for a hardy 
constitution and great industry. 

Solomon Putnam, son of Dea. David Putnam, and 
Peter Putnam, son of Caleb Putnam, though not much in 
office, were among our most worthy farmers. 

Charles Putnam, son of Solomon, remained on the 
homestead, and is an extensive and thriving farmer. 

John Putnam, son of Dea. David Putnam, one of the 
early settlers of the town, and a Kevolutionary soldier, was 
borij November 11, 1797. He is one of the most intelligent, 
respected, industrious and energetic farmers in town. He 



127 

has reared a large and one of the most thoroughly educated 
families in Croydon, He has always remained at the old 
homestead ; he has been Selectman and Representative. 

John Woodbury Putnam, eldest son of John Putnam, 
Esq., born April 6, 1819, is a man of excellent judgment 
and decision of character. After operating as a farmer in his 
native town, and going to the recent war, where he held the 
position of Captain, he has sold out and removed to New 
York. He is located on the Hudson River about sixty 
miles above the city of New York, on a large farm belonging 
to his brother-in-law, Timothy C. Eastman. 

James W. Putnam, son of John Putnam, Esq., was 
born December 15, 1822. He pursued his preparatory 
studies at Kimball Union Academy, and graduated at 
Norwich University. He received his theological training 
at Clinton Seminary, Clinton, N, Y., then under the direc- 
tion of Rev. T. J. Sawyer. In 1848 he received the fellow- 
ship of the Universalist denomination at the New Hampshire 
State Convention, and in 1849 was ordained as pastor of the 
first Universalist society of Danvers, Mass., where after a 
life of much usefulness and ever-increasing popularity, he 
died November 3, 1864. He had charge of the public 
schools in his town for many years, and was several times 
elected a member of the Massachusetts Legislature, in which 
body he took a very prominent and honorable stand. 

Franklin Putnam, son of John Putnam, Esq., was born 
September 8, 1833; graduated at Bowdoin College in 1859; 
studied law with- Brown & Sewell, at Bath, Me., and com- 
menced the practice of his profession at Kansas City, Mo., 
in 1861, where he died November 3, 1865. 



128 

Nathaniel French Putnam, fourth son of John Put- 
nam, Esq., was bora February 2, 1839. He graduated at 
Bowdoin College in 1863; entered the General Theological 
Seminary, New York, November, 1863, graduated June, 
1866; was ordained Deacon in the Protestant Episcopal 
Church at Claremont, May 27, 1866, by the Kt. Eev. 
Carlton Chase, D, D., Bishop of New Hampshire, and took 
charge of St. John's Church, Poultney, Vt., July 1, 1866. 

GrEORGE FREDERICK PuTNAM, yOUngest SOU of Johu 

Putnam, Esq., was born November 6, 1841; received his 
literary training at Norwich University, and studied law 
with N. B. Felton, Esq., of Haverhill, N. H., and was 
admitted to the bar in 1866. 

Ellen Putnam, youngest daughter of John Putnam, 
Esq., a fine scholar and successful teacher, married N. B. 
White, Esq., a lawyer at Omaha, Nebraska. 

Austin Putnam, M. A., son of Samuel and Susan 
Gribson Putnam, and grandson of Caleb Putnam, was 
born March 6, 1809. After pursuing his studies in the 
district school and at Newport Academy, he entered Dart- 
mouth College in 1825. At the close of his second year, 
circumstances led him to relinquish his plan of a full colle- 
giate course, and he soon after commenced the study of law 
in the office of Hon. F. A. Tallmage and Charles F. Grim, 
Esqrs., of New York City, and completed it in the 
office of Hon. John P. and J. Newland Cushman, Esqrs., of 
Troy, N. Y., and at the Law School at Litchfield, Conn. 
He was admitted to the bar at Utica, in July, 1831. He 
immediately commenced practice at Troy, N. Y., with highly 





^\j^\Xx^^ \j \^XX 



^Vv^«^W'v->^ 



129 

encouraging prospects. But after spending a short time in 
his profession, he experienced a total change in his views 
on the subject of religion. At what he conceived to be the 
call of duty he left the profession which he had chosen, and 
which he loved, and commenced the study of theology, under 
the instruction of Rev. Nathan S. S. Beman, D. D., of Troy. 
He was ordained at Lowville, N. Y., in 1834. After a few 
years of successful labor in New York City and at New 
Haven, he was, October 31, 1838, installed as pastor of the 
Congregational Church at Hamden, Conn., where he is now 
living. In 1843 he was married to Caroline W. Northop, 
daughter of Gen. Joseph A. Northop, of Lowville, N. Y. 
In 1844-5 he spent a year in Europe, traveling over the 
different countries. In 1839 he received the honorary 
degree of Master of Arts from Yale College. He has long 
been refrarded as a man of rare endowments. 



Proctor Putnam, son of Hiram, and grandson of Caleb 
Putnam, was born July 8, 1814. From eighteen to twenty- 
eight years of age he followed the occupation of mason — 
the last four years was superintendent in building the locks 
on the Glens I^alls Feeder Canal, and Black River Canal, 
N. Y. In 1842 he removed to Lake County, Illinois, and 
purchased the farm on which he now lives. The following 
brief statement of his affairs will be of interest to all those 
who remember the once penniless boy of Croydon : He has 
six hundred acres of choice land valued at sixty dollars per 
acre, six hundred of the finest merino sheep, seventy head 
of cattle, and thirty hogs, besides much other property. In 
1842 he married Rosilla Sargent, of Grantham, N. fl. 



130 

EzEKiEL Powers, son of Lemuel and Thankful Leland 
Powers — a lady of uncommon intellect — was born in Graf- 
ton, Mass., March 27, 1745; was one of the party who came 
to Croydon in the spring of 1766, for the purpose of survey- 
ing land and making other preparations for a settlement, 
and settled here the following year. He was conspicuous 
principally on account of his great physical strength and 
his inventive genius. Among his many other inventions, he 
first introduced the practice of "ridging" green-sward for the 
purpose of raising Indian corn, — and the "looped" sled so 
generally used since by the lumbermen of Croydon, and the 
sheet-iron pans of our sugar-makers of to-day are of his 
invention. He purchased some six hundred acres, covering 
the land of the East Village and the meadows above. 

David Powers and Samuel Powers, brothers of Ezekiel, 
were also among the earliest settlers. They were worthy 
citizens, and among the most popular and influential men 
in town, and both died of the " spotted fever" in 1813. 

Key. Lemuel Powers, also brother of Ezekiel, was one 
of the early settlers of the town. He waS born at North- 
bridge, Mass., in 1756; married Abigail Newland, and died 
at Stillwater, N. Y., in 1800 — leaving four children. His 
eldest son Cyrus married Lydia Stow, and settled at Sem- 
pronius, N. Y. In 1804 he was appointed a Justice of the 
Peace for Cayuga County, and in 1806 received the appoint- 
ment of Judge of the County Courts, which office he filled 
with much ability for twenty-five years. He died in 1841. 
Abigail, his youngest daughter, was born in 1798. In 
February, 1826, she married Millard Fillmore, late President 



131 

of the United States. She is a lady highly respected toi 
her intelligence, dignity and many Christian virtues. She is 
now a widow, and resides at Buffalo, N. Y. 

Stephen Powers, Benjamin Powers and John Powers, 
cousins of Ezekiel, were also .among the first settlers. From 
the foregoing have descended most of those in town who 
bear the name of Powers. The Powerses were the most 
numerous family among the first settlers, and were distin- 
guished for giant frames, great physical strength and vigor- 
ous intellects. 

Ezekiel Powers, son of Ezekiel and Hannah Hall 
Powers, was born in 1771, and was the first male child born 
in town. At the age of nineteen he married Susan Eice, 
and subsequently Lydia Lane and Lois Barden, and had 
twenty-one children— four sons, and seventeen daughters; 
fifteen of the latter grew to womanhood, and were charac- 
terized by those quahties which distinguish the Powers 
family. Like his father he was remarkable for great phys- 
ical power. At the age of eighty he weighed 265 pounds. 
He had a great memory, and was a lover of fun. 

Maj. Abijah Powers, son of Ezekiel Powers, one of the 
earliest settlers of the town, was a man instinctively inclin- 
ed to leisure and social enjoyments. He was a Major in the 
war of 1812. He was well educated, and had a ready judg- 
ment, and hence was enabled to fill the ofiices of Justice, 
Selectman and Representative with much credit to himself. 
He was the greatest story-teller the town ever prodticed, 
with the exception perhaps of his uncle, Abijah Hall, the 
father of Capt. Amasa Hall. With him, as with James 



132 

and other members of the family, in his last days his mem- 
ory was remarkably clear and retentive. He could recall 
with the utmost vividness all the incidents of his life, and 
after reading a book could repeat it word for word. 

Elias Powers, son of the jDreceding, one of the Com- 
mittee of Arrangements, is a man of intelligence, a respect- 
ed farmer, and has many of the characteristics of his 
father. 

James Powers, son of Ezekiel Powers, senior, was an 
extensive dealer in stock and other property; was a sheriff, 
a ready wit, and a natural j)oet. 

Obed Powers, son of Col. Samuel and Chloe Cooper 
Powers, was born April 20, 1788. Like most boys in 
those early days, he received only from three to four weeks 
schooling each winter. At the age of twenty-two he remov- 
ed to Cornish. In addition to being an active and thriving 
farmer, he has been extensively engaged in stone masonry 
— superintending in New York and Vermont, as well as his 
own State, some of the largest and most difficult under- 
takings. February 10, 1814, he was married to Cynthia 
Cummings; and in 1864 was celebrated their golden wed- 
ding. They had five children, all thoroughly educated at 
Meriden, and all successful teachers. The youngest daugh- 
ter, Marion W., has a decided talent for poetry, was 
assistant teacher at Meriden, and is now at the head of the 
female department of an institution at Sydney, Ohio. 

Solomon L. Powers, brother of the above, after following 
the business of stone-mason at Baltimore and elsewhere, 



133 

finally became an extensive farmer at Gettysburg, Pa.; and 
during the famous battle a portion of the rebel army was 
stationed in his yard. His brothers, Ara and Larnard, were 
successful farmers. The former died at Charlestowu in 1865, 
leaving quite a fortune. 

Samuel Powers, son of Col. Samuel Powers, a merchant 
and practical surveyor, had much native talent. He was 
one of the most successful teachers; had a clear intellect and 
a decided military genius, which was much improved by a 
thorough training at Norwich University. Few are the men 
who have more of the elements of popularity about them, 
or who have been more a favorite with their tov/nsmen. 
Full of promise, he died in 1828, at the early age of thirty- 
three. 

Erastus B. Powers, son of Larnard and Kuby Barton 
Powers, and grandson of Samuel Powers, fitted for college 
at Meriden; graduated at Dartmouth College, and at the 
Law School at Cambridge, Mass., and was admitted to the 
bar in 1866. As a scholar he ranked high in his classes. 

Merritt, Lemuel and Henry Powers, sons of Zadock, 
and grandsons of Ezekiel Powers, were clergymen in Ver- 
mont. 

Haven Powers, son of Cyrus and Lydia Stow Powers? 
and grandson of Rev. Lemuel Powers, was born in 1817. 
After spending several years with his friends on a farm in 
Croydon, he studied law and settled at Milwaukie, Wis. 

Timothy Gilman Powers, son of Timothy, and grand- 
son of Dea, Stephen Powers, is an intelligent farmer and 



134 

man of influence, residing at the East Village. Married 
Eliza Winter, daughter of Adolphus Winter. He has been 
Selectman several times, and held many other offices. 

Dennis Powers, son of David Powers, was born May 24, 
1808; graduated from Amherst College, Mass., in 1835, and 
from Theological Seminary at Andover, Mass., in 1838. He 
was ordained and settled over the Congregational church 
and society of East Kandolph, Mass., December 5, 1838. 
At his own request he was dismissed from this church and 
people April 15, 1841. On the 29th of September, 1842, 
he was installed as pastor of the church and society of 
South Abington, Mass., and remained there until 1850, 
when he accepted an appointment to an office under Presi- 
dent Fillmore, and removed to the city of. Washington. 
He was for a time Agent, and an eloquent advocate of the 
Colonization Society. He is now laboring again with the 
people of Abington, Mass. 

Orlando Powers, son of Capt. Peter Powers, and on 
the mother's side descended from Dea. John Cooper, was 
born May 5, 1810. He was educated mainly at the district 
school. At eighteen he was apprenticed as clerk to Hiram 
Smart — then only merchant of Croydon — where he remained 
until April, 1832, when he removed to Cornish Flat — where 
he now lives — and commenced trade. In 1837 he was 
married to Cynthia L. Smart, daughter of Joseph Smart 
of Croydon. He has been Town Clerk of Cornish seven 
years, was Eepresentative in 1844, and County Treasurer in 
1849 and 1850. He was for a long time Postmaster, and 
has been frequently Administrator of valuable estates. He 
has an active temperament, and a ready business talent, is 




(pT-^Cc-^;^^ /^crzyo^-^^y^Ji^ 



135 

social and gentlemanly. On the breaking out of the re- 
bellion he devoted all his means and energies to the raising 
of men and furnishing supplies for their families. No other 
one in town did so much as he for the cause. 

David Cooper Powers, third son of Peter, and grandson 
of David Powers, was born June 30, 1822. When eight 
years of age he removed with his father to Cayuga County, 
N. Y. He received his academical education at Aurora; 
studied medicine with his brother-in-law, Nathaniel Leavitt, 
}§. D., and graduated at Berkshire Medical College at Pitts- 
field, Mass., in 1848. He then went to California, and 
remained until 1850, when he returned, was married to a 
daughter of Samuel Ledyard, Esq., of Wayne County, and 
settled in the practice of his profession, at Auburn, N. Y. 
In 1853 he again went to California and remained two 
years, when he returned and removed with his family to 
Coldwater, Michigan, where he now resides, and is in the 
practice of his profession. At the breaking out of the 
rebellion he was appointed Surgeon of the 9th Michigan 
Infantry, and acted in that capacity some three years. 

J. WoODwORTH Powers, brother of Orlando, is an exten- 
sive farmer in western New York. 

Jacob Haven Powers, youngest son of Peter, is a 
thriving merchant in western New York. 

Of the sisters, Mary C. married Nathaniel Leavitt, a 
physician, and Cemantha married Daniel Frye, also a physi- 
cian at Deering, N. H. 

Dr. Horace Powers was the son of Urias and Lucy 
Powers, and was born Oct. 27, 1807. His early education 



136 

was obtained in the common schools of his native town and 
the Academy at Newport, after finishing which he studied 
medicine with Dr. J. B. McGregory, of Newport, and having 
attended two full courses of Lectures at Dartmouth Col- 
lege under the noted and lamented Dr. Muzzey, he received 
his diploma of M. D. at the Medical College at Woodstock, 
Vt., in the spring of 1832. He was married Oct. 22, 1833, 
to Miss Love E. Gilman, of Unity, N. H., and settled in 
Morristown, Vt., where he has since resided. He has one 
son now living, H. Henry Powers, Esq., a graduate of the 
University of Vermont, and at present a leading lawyer m 
his county, residing in his native town. Another son, 
George R. Powers, died in the army in Feb., 1862. 

The Dr. was a Justice of the Peace in Morristown twenty- 
five years in succession ; was a Deputy Sherifi" many years, 
and in 1844 and '45 High Sheriff of Lamoille County ; 
in 1850, represented his town in the Vermont Constitu- 
tional Convention, and in 1853 and '54, represented 
Lamoille County in the Vermont State Senate. He has also 
been a Director in the Lamoille County Bank for many 
years ; in 1865, being out of health, he retired from the most 
extensive and lucrative practice in his county. 

Urias Powers, son of Urias Powers, was born May 12, 
1791; graduated at Dartmouth College in 1818; pursued a 
theological course at Andover, Mass. ; ordained in 1823; and 
after preaching in South Carolina and Virginia, he became 
connected by marriage with the family of a wealthy planter 
and settled at Big Lick, Va. He voluntarily emancipated 
his slaves. The rebellion dealt harshly with his once large 
fortune. He was the first native of Croydon who received a 
collegiate education. 



137 

JosiAH W. Powers, son of the late Urias Powers, was 
born June 19, 1799. He entered Dartmouth College, but 
before completing the full course, he left and entered the 
Theological Institution at Andover, Mass., where he grad- 
uated. After being ordained, he preached at Kingston, 
Mass. and at Kennebunk, Me. In 1839 he accepted an 
agency of the American Bible Society, and soon after reach- 
ing Ohio, the field of his labor, was called to his rest. 

Gershom Powers, son of the late John Powers, was born 
June 11, 1789. His early advantages were quite limited 
—denied even the advantages of a common school. His 
parents being too poor to furnish other means, his books were 
read and pondered by the uncertain light of the ''fore-stick." 
A lameness iu his right arm induced him to leave the farm 
and turn his attention to law, the study of which he com- 
menced at Sempronius in 1810. After completing his 
course, he opened an office at Auburn, and was popular and 
successful in his practice. He was appointed Assistant Jus- 
tice of the Cayuga County Court, and after three years ser- 
vice in that capacity was elevated to the position of County 
Judge. Jan. 30, 1826, he was appointed to the control of 
the Prison at Auburn, and under his management the 
"Auburn System of Prison Discipline" became famous 
throughout the United States and Europe, as second to' 
none on the globe. In 1829, he was chosen Representative 
to Congress, and declined a re-election on account of feeble 
health. He died Jan. 25, 1831. He was kind to his indi- 
gent relatives, beloved by all, and died a Christian. 

William Powers, an elder brother of the preceding, was 
born in 1786, and his means of education were similar to 



138 

those of his brother. He was assistant keeper of the prison 
at Auburn, N. Y. Having drawn a superior plan of a pris- 
on, he was employed by the government of Canada West to 
superintend the erection of a penitentiary at Kingston, and 
in May, 1835, was appointed Deputy Warden of said prison. 
He is now an extensive farmer in western New York. 



John Rawson, from whom have descended the Rawsons, 
settled under the mountain, near the P. Barton place. 

Moses Reed, the father of the Reeds, was among the 
early settlers, and was a cloth dresser at the Flat. 

Hon. Charles Rowell, son of Lemuel Rowell, remov- 
ed from "Ryder Corner" to Allenstown, N. H., where he 
died Jan. 11, 1867, aged 82 years. He was intrusted with 
many civil offices. He was Selectman of his town twenty- 
four years. Justice of the Peace about the same number of 
years, a Representative to the State Legislature four j'^ears. 
County Treasurer two years, and State Senator two years. 
He had been an earnest and consistent member of the Meth- 
odist E. Church for fifty-eight years. 

Edmund Rowell, a brother of the preceding, studied 
medicine and settled in Merrimac County, where he died 
young. 



139 

Franklin Rowell, and Christopher Eowell, sons of 
David Rowell — both men of decided genius — are among the 
most successful artists in Boston. 

Edmund Rowell, son of Sherburn Rowell, is a success- 
ful trader at New London, Conn. 



Elisabeth Rumble, a spinster, was noted for her great 
age — a hundred years — and her many eccentricities. At the 
trout-brook she was the rival of the famous Isaak Walton. 



JoTHAM Ryder came early to Croydon, and settled in 
the south-east corner of the town, and from him and his con- 
nections the place has always since been known as " Ryder 
Corner." 

Asa Ryder, son of Jotham Ryder, studied medicine with 
Alexander Boyd, of Newport, graduated at the medical 
dej^artment at Hanover, and settled at Alstead, N. H., where, 
after two years of practice, he died. 

Daniel Ryder, son of Jotham Ryder, was born Dec. 29, 
1803. He married Sarah George, and remains under the 
paternal roof, at Ryder Corner. He has long been noted 
for the excellence of his stock and produce. He is one of 
the most prosperous and worthy farmers in town, and is 
esteemed a man of superior judgment. He was one of the 
Committee of Arrangements, and is the father of William 
W. and David E. Ryder. 



140 

Elijah Ryder, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Cele- 
bration, son of Jothani Ryder, Jr., is a worthy farmer, and 
has attained quite a celebrity as a teacher, both of schools 
and penmanship. 



Isaac, John, Phineas, Lydia, Elizabeth and Phebe 
Sanger came to Croydon in 1770, and were regarded as an 
important accession to the town. The brothers had families, 
the sisters were unmarried. Their descendants are charac- 
terized by a great fondness for books and the remarkable 
facility with which they acquire literary and scientific knowl- 
edge. Very many of the distinguished sons of Croydon are 
proud to trace their lineage from the Sangers. John and 
Phineas left town. Isaac died of the heart disease, while 
crossing Croydon Mountain in 1780, leaving three daughters 
— one of whom married Barnabas Cooper, and another 
William Gibson. 

Lydia married John Powers, and Phebe married a Mr. 
Noyes. Elizabeth, or, as everybody called her, "■ Aunt 
Lizzy," remained single, and was really one of the best speci- 
mens of an old maid the world has ever produced. Turning 
instinctively away from all allurements to matrimony, she 
preferred to remain, 

" In maiden fancy free." 

She was "an angel of mercy," and "went about doing 
good." She seemed to be everywhere present when needed 
• — chiding the erring, comforting the sick, helping the needy, 
and cheering the desponding. The memory of " that good 
woman" is cherished with lively interest by all the early set- 



141 

tiers of Croydon. But tradition says slie had her one fault 
— she was a firm believer in witches. Many an urchin has 
feared going to bed alone, after listening to her wonderful 
tales of ghosts and hobgoblins. She lived to a good old age, 
and went to her rest with many benedictions. God bless 
her. 



Alvin Sargent, son of Capt. John Sargent, is a clergy- 
man of the Baptist order, now living at Holderness, N. H. 
He has been several times a member of the Legislature. 

Joseph Sargent, a brother of the above, married Lucin- 
da, daughter of Benj. Skinner, Esq. For a while he was 
engaged as high-school teacher. He studied theology, and 
became a Universalist clergyman — was quite talented. He 
was Chaplain in the army, and died in the service. 

William Sherman came to Croydon from Barre, Mass., 
in 1797, and died Feb. 19, 1855, aged 79 years, leaving a 
large family. He is remembered as an upright farmer. Of 
him it might be said, as of one of old: " Behold an Israelite 
indeed, in whom there is no guile." 

s:m:^i?.t. 

Hiram Smart, son of Caleb Smart, for a long time a lead- 
ing man and popular merchant in town, married Harriet, 
daughter of Capt. William Whipple, and he subsequently 
removed to Nashua, N. H., where he died. 



142 

HiKAM Smart, son of the preceding, lias been a Repre- 
sentative from Plaistow in the Legislature, a School Commis- 
sioner, and Register of Deeds for Rockingham County, and 
is now in the Boston Custom House. 



Gardner Stewart, son of John Stewart — an early set- 
tler on "Winter Hill — married Sarah, daughter of James 
Powers. He has been a successful financier. He now 
resides at Plainview, Min. 



STiusrsoitT. 

Rev, Robert Stinson, a Universalist clergyman of most 
blameless life, was connected with the society in Croydon at 
the time of his appointment as Chaplain of the Sixth Reg. 
N. H. Vols., and died much lamented, soon after his return 
from the army. 



David Stockwell was born in 1748. He came from 
Sutton, Mass., to Croydon, in 1772. He was a farmer, 
served honorably in the Revolutionary war, and died July 
16, 1824. All by the name of Stockwell, who have origin- 
ated in Croydon, have descended from him. 

Stillman Stockwell, son of Giles, and grandson of 
David Stookwell, removed to the West, where he has become 
a wealthy farmer. 



143 

STO'W'. 

Jonah Stow, from whom have descended the Stows, 
married Lydia Powers, and came early to this town from 
Stockbridge, Mass., with his four sons, Peter, Asaph, Solo- 
mon and Jonah, and long occupied " Stow Hill," now 
Brighton. His eldest daughter, Judith, married Whipple 
Haven, a brother of Eev. Jacob Haven; his second, Lydia, 
married Hon. Cyrus Powers, a brother of Mrs. President 
Fillmore, and his third daughter, Prudence, married Paul 
Jacobs, Esq., of Croydon. 

Peter Stow, a sterling farmer, married Deborah Nettle- 
ton, of Newport, and was the father of the Eev. Dr. Stow, 
of Boston, and Pvoyal P. Stow, former Clerk of the U. S. 
House of Representatives. While in town he held many 
important civil and military offices. 

Baron Stow, D. D., eldest son of Peter and Deborah Stow, 
and grandson, by his father's side, of Jonah and Lydia Stow, 
and by his mother's, of Jeremiah and Love Nettleton, was 
born in the westerly part of Croydon, June 16, 1801. In 
September, 1809, his parents removed to Newport, where 
for a few years he had the advantages of a good common 
school, under the tuition of such excellent teachers as 
Benjamin Cummings and William R. Kimball, of Cornish; 
Austin Corbin, William A. Chapin, Moses Chapin and 
Carlton Hurd, of Newport, and Samuel Blanchard, of 
Croydon. In December, 1818, he became a member 
of the Baptist Church in Newport, and soon com- 
menced preparation for the work of the Christian min- 
istry, pursuing classical studies, at first with the Rev. 



144 

Leland Howard, of Windsor, Vt., but mainly at the 
Newport Academy, defraying his expenses by teaching 
winter schools. The state of his health requiring a milder 
climate, he went, in 1822, to Washington, D. C.,and joined 
the Columbian College, entering the Freshman Class eight 
months in advance. The funds for the expenses of his 
collegiate course were supplied in part by the generosity of 
others, and the remainder by giving private instruction. 
Among his pupils were two sons of Commodore Porter, one 
of whom is now Admiral David D. Porter, of the U. S. 
Navy. After graduating with the first honor of his class, in 
December, 1825, he edited for a year and a half a religious 
newspaper in Washington, called " The Columbian Star." 
In September, 1826. he married Miss Elizabeth L. Skinner, 
of Windsor, Vt. In the summer of 1827, he returned to 
New England, and on the 24th of October of the same year 
was ordained as pastor of the Middle St. Baptist Church, 
Portsmouth, N. H. After five years of service in that place, 
he accepted an invitation to the pastoral care of the Bald- 
win Place Church, Boston, and was there installed, Novem- 
ber 15, 1832. In the spring of 1848, compelled by impaired 
health, he resigned that position, and, in the autumn, 
accepted the less onerous charge of the Rowe St. Church, in 
the same city, of which he is still the pastor. 

In 1846, Brown University conferred on him the honorary 
degree of Doctor of Divinity, and, in 1854, Harvard Uni- 
versity rej)eated the honor. 

At three different times in twenty-three years, he was 
elected Corresponding Secretary of the national organization, 
now styled the American Baptist Missionary Union; but, 
from a clear conviction that he had a vocation from God to 



145 

be a preacher and pastor, he in every instance declined the 
appointment. The same conviction has restrained him 
from listening to urgent propositions to accept positions in 
Colleges, either as President or Professor, 

Notwithstanding imperfect health, he has performed, in 
thirty-nine years of ministerial life, a large amount of 
service, not only in his ecclesiastical relations, but in various 
Boards of Colleges and Benevolent Iiistitutions. He is the 
author of several books and pamphlets, and has written 
much for the periodical press. 

In 1840, and again in 1859, his people, at their own 
expense sent him to Europe for the benefit of his health, 
and for mental improvement. 

During his ministry, he has preached nearly 4,500 ser- 
mons, baptized nearly 1,000 persons, married nearly 1,200 
couples, officiated at more than 1,300 funerals, and made 
more than 21,600 parochial visits. His correspondence, for 
many years, has averaged 1,000 letters per annum. In 
forty-five years, his travels at home and abroad have exceed- 
ed more than 100,000 miles. His private journal extends 
through nineteen volumes of manuscript, making more than 
4,000 pages. Such an amount of labor would have been 
impossible but for a rigid economy of time and a tenacious 
adherence to system. 

His father, born in Grafton, Mass., June 21, 1771, died 
in Newport, N. H., in 1816 ; his mother, born in Killing- 
worth, Conn., February 11, 1775, died in Potsdam, N. Y., 
in 1846. 

Asaph Stow removed to Sempronius, N. Y., where he 
enjoyed in a good degree the confidence of the community 



146 

and was intrusted with much public business. He was one 
of the messengers to carry the Presidential Vote to Wash- 
ington. 

s^wiisrnsrEiE^TOisr. 

Benjamin Swinnerton, one of the early settlers, once 
quite a favorite in town, was drowned at an early age while 
attempting to swim across the Connecticut River in com- 
pany with an Indian. 

John Town, son of John Town, was born Aug. 17, 1805. 
He was educated at Newport Academy. In June, 1840, he 
was appointed Deputy Secretary of State, which office he 
held for four successive years, often doing the duties of the 
Secretary. He was elected Register of Deeds for Sullivan 
County, in 1851, and was re-elected in 1852, 1858 and 1854. 
He was often elected to minor offices. He was a teacher by 
profession, and in it was quite successful. 

Vashti Town, sister of the above, was educated at the 
Kimball Union Academy, and connnenced teaching in her 
native town. She was soon called to take charge of the 
female department of the Norwich Institute, at Norwich, 
Vt., where she remained three years. She was then invited 
to Portsmouth, Va., and after nine years of successful labor 
in that place, removed to the city of Washington, where she 
has been mainly occupied in teaching for the last fifteen 
years. Her occasional contributions to the press indicate a 
ready .pen, and a high degree of literary merit. 



147 

Polly Wakefield, now 95 years of age, the oldest 
person now li\qng in town, is the widow of Maj. Josiah 
Wakefield, of Newport, and daughter of Phineas Newton, 
who came to Croydon in 1772, from Worcester, Mass. 

Amos Wakefield, son of Amos and Chloe Cooper Wake- 
field, and grandson of Dea. Sherman Cooper, is a Methodist 
clergyman at the West. 

Moses and John Walker, the former living in the west 
part of the town, and the latter on the turnpike, were the 
progenitors of the Walkers. 

Josiah Ward came to this town from Henniker, N. H., 
and settled in the south-west corner of the town. He had a 
large family. 

David Ward, the eldest son of Josiah Ward, a physician, 
after practicing awhile in New York, and at Adrian, Mich., 
removed to Illinois, where he died. Josiah, Jr., a lawyer, 
after studying his profession, went first to Adrian, Mich., 
•where he held an honorable position in his calling, but after- 
wards removed to Nevada, where he died in 1865. He was 
District Attorney. Alfred married Kandilla, daughter of 
Col. Samuel Powers, remains on the homestead and is a 
worthy and successful farmer. He was Representative in 
1853 and 1854. Daniel was born June 10, 1810. He 



148 

turned his attention to medicine; graduated at Castleton, 
Vt., in 1834. He married Mary Ann, daughter of Capt. 
Zina Groldthwait, and settled at Marseilles, 111., where he 
has been higlily successful in his professional and pecuniary 
endeavors. 



David Warren, the head of one of the three families 
that came to town in 1766, was born in Grafton, Mass., in 
1742. He married Prudence Whipple, sister of Capt. Moses 
Whipple, and also to the mother of Rev. Jacob Haven. Not 
long after their arrival, a most trying incident occurred: 
Mr. W. went away to work, the wife leaving her infant on 
the bed and two little ones running about the house, took 
her pail and went out a little way to the spring for water; 
in attempting to return, she lost her way, and the more she 
sought to regain it the more she became bewildered. Fear- 
ing she might wander away and be lost, she sat down upon 
a log and there remained until her husband's return at night- 
fall, when his loud outcry soon restored the lost, anxious, 
aching-hearted mother to her sacred little charge. 

Prudence Warren, daughter of David, married Dea. 
Abel Wheeler, of Newport, and has several noted descend- 
ants. 

Daniel Warren, son of David Warren, Jr., a Congrega- 
tional clergyman, was settled at Waterbury, Vt. ; died at 
Lowell, Vt. 



149 

Dea. Nathaniel Wheeler, son of Nathaniel Wheeler, 
was born in Sutton, Mass., in 1753. He married Mehitabel 
Haven. He came to Croydon in 1775, and died in 1840, at 
the age of eighty-seven years. He settled in the wilderness 
and cleared up what was long known as the " Wheeler farm" 
in the southerly part of the town, since occupied by H, 
Jacobs. He was an extensive and thriving farmer, and a 
soldier in the Kevolutionary war. He was mainly instru- 
mental in building the once flourishing Church at North ville, 
in Newport, and was a consistent and worthy deacon of the 
same for many years. He was decided in his religious views, 
and gave much time and money for the support of the gos- 
pel. His strict integrity, singleness of purpose, and devo- 
tion to a religious life, gave weight to his word and example. 

Dea, Seth Wheeler, brother of the preceding, came to 
town at the same time and settled on the M. C. Bartlett 
farm, but subsequently removed to New York, where he 
died. 

Col. Nathaniel Wheeler, son of Dea. Nathaniel 
Wheeler, was born May 10, 1781. He married Huldah 
Whipple, daughter of Aaron Whipple, and granddaughter 
of Moses Whipple, the honored father of the town. She 
died in 1833, leaving seven children. He subsequently mar- 
ried Lucy F. Freeman, of Lebanon, whom he survived but a 
short time. There were no children by this marriage. His 
farming operations were extensive, and his farm and stock 
were always well cared for and in good condition. For 
many years he kept one of the largest and best dairies in a 
town of good dairies. He took an active part in military 



150 

and political affairs; and in the war of 1812 was the first 
man in town to volunteer as a private soldier, though hold- 
ing a commission at the time. He was Kepresentative in 
1816, and Selectman for a large number of years. For half 
a century he was a devoted and worthy member of Masonic 
Fraternity. He died July 13, 1864, at Lebanon, where he 
had resided for a number of years. His intelligence, and 
clear, calm judgment, were among his most marked charac- 
teristics* 

Dr. Griswold Whipple, Wheeler, eldest son of Col. 
Nathaniel Wheeler, was born at Croydon, Feb. 22, 1808, and 
died at St. Louis, Mo., June 7, 1865. He pursued his studies 
at Kimball Union Academy; studied medicine with Willard 
P.Gibson, M. D., of Newport, and graduated at the Medical 
Department of Dartmouth College. After spending about one 
year at Hopkinton and one at Covington, Ky., lie settled at 
Perryville, the county seat of Perry County, Mo., where for 
twenty-five years he was extensively engaged in the prac- 
tice of his profession, and was the leading physician and 
surgeon for a large section of country. While attending to 
his professional duties he found time to master the German 
and French languages, and gave much attention to the 
natural sciences, especially Chemistry, Geology and Botany, 
to which he was passionately devoted. His clear and 
logical mind, and love of study and observation, com- 
bined with his great industry, justly gave him a high 
position as a professional and scientific man. His attach- 
ment to country life was so strong that no solicitations 
could induce him to remove to the city, and he declined a 
professorship proffered him in the St. Louis Medical College- 



151 

He was never married. . A large share of his time and earn- 
ings were devoted to deeds of benevolence. He was a pa- 
triarch in town, beloved and respected by all, and died firm 
in the Christian faith. 

William Plummer Wheeler, son of Col. Nathaniel 
Wheeler, was born at Croydon, July 31, 1812. He lived 
at home on the Wheeler place in the south part of the town 
until he was about thirteen years of age, when he went to 
reside with his uncle James Wheeler at Newport. He re- 
mained there until 1836; and, after the death of his uncle, 
was for a time engaged in the harness making business. He 
pursued his studies at the Academy in Newport, and after- 
wards at Kimball Union Academy, where he remained 
nearly three years. He left there in 1839, and commenced 
the study of law, which he pursued at Keene, at the Law 
Department of Harvard University, and in Boston. In 
1842, he was admitted to practice in this State, and soon 
after opened an office at Keene, where he has since been 
actively engaged in the practice of his profession. He re- 
ceived the degree of LL. B. at Harvard University, in 
1842; and in 185C, that of A. M. at Dartmouth College. 
He was Solicitor of Cheshire County for ten years ; and in 
1851 was appointed a Justice of the Court of Common 
Pleas, which he declined. He has several times since been 
tendered a seat upon the bench of the Supreme Court of 
this State. In 1855, and again in 1857, he was a candidate 
for Congress in the third district. He was married in 1849 
to Sarah D. Moulton, of Kandolph, Vt. He is a Trustee of 
the State Reform School, and of the State Agricultural 
Colleo-e. 



152 

Edmund Wheeler, son of Col. Nathaniel Wheeler, was 
born Aug. 25th, 1814. He was educated at Kimball Union 
Academy. In 1833 he commenced the harness business at 
Newport, with a brother; and in 1839 bought the establish- 
ment and began for himself. He carried on extensive and 
successful operations until 1866, when he sold out and 
retired from business. He took an active part in the move- 
ment to uphold the state militia prior to its abandonment 
before the rebellion, and was for two years a member of the 
staiF of Gov. Williams. He was a member of the Legisla- 
ture from Newport in 1851 and 1852, and in the latter year 
was chairman of the committee on Incorporations. He was 
also a member of several important special committees, and 
took an active part in the discussion of the leading measures 
before the house. In 1863 and 1864 he was candidate for 
County Treasurer. He was a Director in Sugar Kiver 
Bank. In 1858, he erected Wheeler's Block at Newport, 
the effects of which may be seen, in part, in the improved 
style of architecture in the village since that time. In 1851 
he was married to Miss S. C. Kossiter, of Claremont, who 
died in 1856. He was married in 1863 to Miss Augusta L. 
Sawyer, daughter of Joseph Sawyer, Esq., of Newport. 

John Wheeler, youngest son of Col. Nathaniel Wheel- 
er, was born July 1, 1818. He had a clear intellect and 
scholarly turn of mind, but died young. Once taking a 
decided dislike to a dissipated, ugly Captain, on board whose 
ship he had embarked for his health, he ran away and spent 
a long time on the Island of Juan Fernandez, subsisting as 
he could, 

And with Selkirk immortal could say, 
'■ I am monarch of all I survey." 



153 

Lucy P. Wheeler, youngest daughter of Col. Nathan- 
iel Wheeler, was educated at Norwich Institute and Kim- 
ball Union Academy; married Edward Ingham, Esq., a man 
of superior intellect and business tact, and died at Newport 
ill 1852. 

• 
James P. Wheeler, son of Morrill, and grandson of 

Col. Nathaniel Wheeler, a boy of uncommon *courage and 

daring, was for eight months with Gen. Sickles as dispatch 

bearer. He was for a long time an inmate of the " Libby 

Prison," and shared with others in the famous " black bean 

soup." He re-enlisted and died a prisoner at Danville, Va. 

Hannah Wheeler, eldest daughter of Dea. Nathaniel, 
married Nathan Nettleton and removed to Delaware, near 
Columbus, Ohio, and is the mother of James an eloquent 
divine of the Methodist order, and Albert the able editor 
of " The Review," and who has recently been appointed 
General in the U. S. army, 

Mehitabel Wheeler, a younger sister, married Israel 
Peck, and is the mother of Nathaniel W. Peck, clergyman, 
who graduated at Middlebury College in 1843. 

Major Simeon Wheeler, son of Simeon and Lucy 
Putnam Wheeler, and grandson of Dea. Nathaniel Wheeler, 
was born at Newport in August, 1815, and died at Demop- 
olis, Alabama, in February, 1864. He graduated at Nor- 
wich University in 1840, and for some time after was en- 
gaged in teaching at the South. He pursued his legal stud- 
ies at Charlottesville, Va., and practiced law with success for 
a number of years at Portsmouth, in the same State. He 



154 

took an active part in the political discussions of the day, 
and was a delegate to the Greneral Assembly of the State. 
He was married to a lady of Portsmouth, who had estates 
in Alabama, which required his personal attention, and soon 
after he removed to Demopolis in that State, where he was 
a successful planter until the time of his death. ♦ He was 
generous, ardent and impulsive. With a clear intellect, 
active temperament, good scholarship, and decided opinions, 
he had great influence over those with whom he associated. 
His wife survives him. 

Lucy Miranda Wheeler, daughter of James and Kuth 
Putnam Wheeler, and granddaughter pf Dea. Nathaniel 
Wheeler, married Rev. Josiah Swett, an Episcopal clergy- 
man, now residing in Burlington, Vt. 



Moses Whipple, son of Jacob Whipple, was born at 
Grafton, Mass., in 1733, and came to Croydon in 1766, bring- 
ing three sons, Thomas, Aaron and Moses, and one daughter, 
Jerusha. His was one of the first three families that came 
to town. Having a complete mastery of his passions, well 
educated, intelligent, distinguished for energy and decision 
of character, warm-hearted, hospitable and generous to all, 
he was well calculated to be — what he indeed was — 2i father 
to the town. It is said of him that, so great was the respect 
entertained for him by his townsmen, his word was law 
in all local matters. He was elected to more offices than 
any other man wlio has ever belonged to Croydon. He was 
a Captain of the militia, and chairman of the " Commit- 



155 

tee of Safety" through the Revolutionary struggle. It was 
often remarked of hhu by his contemporaries, that he was 
a Washington in the si^here in which he moved. He was 
a deacon for thirty years. In 1809 he removed to Charles- 
town, N. H:, where he spent, with his eldest son, the 
remainder of his life. He died in 1814, aged 83 years. (See 
also speech of Thomas Whipple, Esq.) From him and 
Samuel Whipple have descended the Whipples. 

Thomas Whipple, son of Moses, married Thankful 
Powers, and settled at Charlestown, N. H., and raised up 
a large family. Aaron married Matilda Cooper and settled 
in the south part of the town, near Coit Mountain, on the 
farm so long and so well occupied by his son Moses Whip- 
ple previous to his retirement to his present life of com- 
parative leisure at the Flat. Aaron, 

" In fair round belly, with good capon lined," 

relished a joke. 

Benjamin, eleventh child of Moses Whipple, now living 
at Berlin, Vt., is nearly ninety years of age, 

Thomas Whipple, son of Daniel Whipple, and great- 
grandson of Moses Whipple, an intelligent farmer and prac- 
tical surveyor, has long taken a deep interest in the cause of 
.education, and for many years has had the general charge of 
the schools in Charlestown, N, H., his place of residence. — 
He has a well-educated family, some of them graduates at 
Meriden. He is a correct business man ; was a candidate 
for County Treasurer in 1856, receiving the full vote of his 
party. 



156 

David Whipple, son of Aaron, was a farmer and man of 
good judgment. He had an excellent memory, and retain- 
ed his faculties almost unimpaired until the period of his 
death, at nearly eighty years of age. To him the editor is 
indebted for many facts relating to the fathers and mothers 
of the town. 

Solomon M. Whipple, M. D., son of David Whipple, and 
great-grandson of Moses Whipple, one of the first settlers 
and original proprietors of the town, was born July 28, 
1820. By the home-lamp, and a few terms at Unity and 
Lebanon Academies, he prepared to enter the collegiate 
department of Norwich University, where he graduated in 
1846. He pursued his medical studies at Dartmouth Col- 
lege and at Woodstock Medical School, and graduated from 
the latter institution in 1849. The same year in which he 
graduated he commenced practice at New London, N. H., 
where he still resides, and where he is enjoying a full tide of 
successful business. The occasional contributions from his 
pen to some of the popular medical and political journals of 
the day, attest to his literary merit. Jan. 4, 1851, he was 
united in marriage to Miss Henrietta K. Hersey, daughter 
of Amos K. Hersey, Esq., of Sanbornton, N. H. 

Barnabas C. Whi pple, one of the Committee of Ar- 
rangements — the youngest son of David, and grandson of 
Aaron Whipple, was born in 1822. He married Sarah 
Whitney, He is an industrious farmer, and resides with his 
father at the homestead. 

GiLMAN C. Whipple, son of Moses, and grandson of 
Aaron Whipple, was born March 18, 1837. He is a most 



157 

popular and successful merchant at Lebanon, N. H. Mar- 
ried in 1864, Clara, daughter of Samuel Wood, of Lebanon. 
Capt. William Whipple, son of Samuel Whipple, was 
an extensive farmer and the largest wool-grower in town — 
at times kept a thousand sheep. He married Judith, 
daughter of Caleb Putnam, and lived on the farm since 
occupied by T. G. Powers, Esq. He died Dec. 5, 1852, 
aged 84 years. 

William M. Whipple, son of William, was born Aug. 
9, 1 817. His early life was passed at the homestead and 
devoted to agriculture. He subsequently engaged in mer- 
cantile business. He was Eepresentative from Croydon in 
1856. He removed to Sheffield, Bureau Co., 111. in 1857, 
where he has been engaged in successful trade and farming 
operations. He is a man of fine intellect and agreeable 
manners, and has been the recipient of many public honors. 

Lynda Whipple, third daughter of Capt. William 
Whipple, married Dudley Leavitt, a successful physician at 
West Stockbridge, Mass., whose son Wm. Whipple Leavitt 
has been a Surgeon in the army and is now physician at 
Stockbridge. 

Lucy B. Whipple, the youngest daughter of William, 
married Wm. W. George, of Canaan, N. H., a prominent 
business man and sheriff, and who has been a member of 
the Legislature for a number of years. 

Timothy Winter came to Croydon from Northbridge, 
Mass., and settled near the Edward Hall i^lace. His three 
sons, Ebenezer, Thaddeus and Timothy, settled on Winter 
Hill. 



158 



HISTORY 



Croydon, in Sullivan County, N. H., situated on the highlands between 
Connecticut and Merrimac rivers, is bounded on the north by Grantham, 
east by Springfield and Sunapee, south by Newport, and west by Cornish. 
Area 26,000 acres. Distance from Concord, the capital of the State, 44 miles, 
northwest. Its surface is uneven. Much of its scenery is wild and pic- 
turesque. Croydon Mountain, extending across the western part of the 
town, the highest elevation in the county, commands an extended and 
beautiful prospect. The town is well watered. Besides the north branch 
of Sugar Kiver, which 'crosses it in a southwesterly direction, dividing 
it into two nearly equal parts, it has several ponds, among which are Long 
Pond, Rocky Bound, Governor's and Spectacle. The soil is diversified, 
that bordering on Sugar River is rich and productive ; as we rise gradu- 
ally back upon the hills it produces excellent grass, wheat and potatoes, 
while as we ascend still higher up the mountain-sides we find only pastur- 
age and forests, and these are overtopped with lofty piles of granite. 

Charter. The charter of Croydon, signed by Benning Wentworth, and 
countersigned by Theodore Atkinson, is dated May 31, 1763. The town- 
ship was divided into seventy-one shares ; of which, two were reserved as 
a farm for Gov. Wentworth ; one, for the propagation of the gospel in 
foreign parts ; one, as a glebe for the Church of England ; one, for the first 
minister who should settle in town ; one, for the education of youth ; and 
the remaining sixty-five were granted to the individuals whose names are 
annexed. Their first meeting was held at Grafton, Mass., June 17, 1763; 
their first meeting at Croydon, Jan. 17, 1798 ; and their last meeting Jan. 
17, 1810. 



Samuel Chase, 
Ephraim Sherman, 
James Wellman, 
Antipas Ilollan, 
Enoch Marble, 
Jonathan Chase, 
Thomas Dana, 
John Stow, 
Moses Chase, 
Seth Chase, 
Stephen Hall, 
Daniel Chase, 
Ephraim Sherman, Jr. 
John Temple, 
Samuel Chase, Jr. 
Ebenezer AVaters, 
Dudley Chase, 
Gershom Waite, 
March Chase, 
Phineas Leland, 
Luke Drury, 
The. M. Cleninsr, 



Solomon AUlridge, 
Daniel Chase, Jr. 
Jonathan Aldridge, 
James Taylor, 
Joseph Whipple, 
Silas Warring, 
Solomon Chase, 
Benjamin Wood, 
Caleb Chase, 
Moses Whipple, 
Benjamin Leland, 
Moody Chase, 
Daniel Marsh, 
Samuel Ayers, 
Joseph Vinson, 
Timothy Darling, 
Jones Brown, 
David Sherman, 
Ebenezer Rawson, 
Samuel Sherman, 
James Richardson, 
Daniel Putnam, 



Samuel Dudley, 
AVilliam Dudley, 
Abraham Temple 
Benjamin Morse, 
James Whipple, 
Benjamin Morse, Jr. 
Joseph Mirriam, 
John Whipple, 
Willis Hall, 
Benjamin Wallis, 
Silas Ha/.cltine, 
Jonuthaii Hall, 
Richard Wiljird 
John Downing, 
Daniel Warner, 
Stephen Chase, 

Parsons, 

David Temple, 
Solomon Leland, 
John Holland, 
AVilliam AVaite. 



159 



Settlement. In the spring of 1766 Moses Whipple, Seth Chase, David 
Warren, Ezekiel Powers and others, came to Croydon from Grafton, Mass., 
and made some preliminary prepai-ations for a settlement. Soon after 
their return, Seth Chase, with his wife and child, started for this place, 
This was the first family established in town. They arrived June 10, 1766 ; 
and three days after, June 13, commenced the erection of their log cabin. 
On the twenty-fourth of the same month, Moses Whipple and David War- 
ren arrived with their families. The next year Moses Leland and Ezekiel 
Powers came to town. In the autumn of 1768, four more families arrived. 
And in 1769, the tide of emigration setting this way, soon made them 
respectable for numbers. The first town meeting was held March 8, 1768. 

Mr. Chase erected his cabin about one half mile S. W. from Spectacle 
Pond, on the farm now owned by Moses Barton ; Mr. Whipple on the 
swell of land between Four Corners and East Village, on the farm of W. 
Smith — long known as the " Edward Hall place ;" Mr. Warren on the 
north side of the Pinnacle, near the cemetery ; Mr. Powers on the T. 0. 
Powers farm near the East Village, and Mr. Leland in the north part of the 
town, on the farm of Kimball Loverin. 

Revolution. The sympathies of the first settlers of Croydon were 
early enlisted in the Revolutionary struggle. Soon after the battle of Lex- 
ington they sent Eleazor Leland and Abner Brigham to join the Provincial 
army ; enrolled a company of twelve " minute men ;" raised eight pounds 
to purchase a town stock of ammunition ; and chose Moses Whipple, Ste- 
phen Powers, Phineas Sanger, Abner Brigham and Joseph Hall a " Commit- 
tee of Safety." In 1777, nine men from Croydon joined a company of 
militia commanded by Capt. Solomon Chase, of Cornish, and marched to 
Ticonderoga. Eight men from this town joined the company of Capt. 
Hardy, of Hanover, and united with the forces of Gen. Stark, at Charles- 
town. Capt. Moses Whipple, with a company composed partly of men 
from Cornish, "turned out" to stop the progress of Burgoyne. Croydon 
maintained its interest and contributed its full share of men and means 
until the close of the war. The following is an imperfect list of those cit- 
izens of Croydon who served in the Revolutionary army : 



Bazaleel Barton, 
Benjamin Barton, 
Abner Brigham, 
Cornel Chase, 
John Cooper, (Jr.) 
Joel Cooper, 
Sherman Cooper, 
Ezra Cooper, 
Benjamin Cutting, 
Jonas Cutting, 
John Druce, 
Amos Dwinnell, 
Enoch Emerson, 
Daniel Emerson, 
Timothy Fisher, 
Ezra Hall, 
Edward Hall, Jr., 
Anio.s Hagar, 
Bazaleel Gleason, 



James How, 
Abijah Hall, 
James Hall, 
Joseph Hall, 
Samuel R. Hall, 
Eleazer Leland. 
Rufus King, 
Rnfus Kempton, 
Phineas'Newton, 
Stephen Powers, 
Urias Powers, 
David Powers, 
Samuel Powers, 
Caleb Putnam, 
David Putnam, 
Jacob Hall, 
Benjamin Sherman, 
Ezekiel Rooks, 
Daniel Rooks, 



David Stockwell-, 
Pliineas Sanger, 
John Sanger, 
Isaac Sanger, 
Robert Spencer, 
Benjamin Swinnerton, 
Benjamin Thompson, 
Gershom Ward, 
Aaron Warren, 
Moses Warren, 
Moses Whipple, 
Thomas Whipple, 
Aaron Wliipple, 
Isaac ^V'oolson, 
Nathaniel Wheeler, 
Samuel Whipple, 
Seth Whoeler. 



160 

War of 1812. The following is an imperfect list of those sons of Croy- 
don who served in the war of 1812 : 

Major, Abijah Powers, Tyler Walker, 

Ensign, Amasa Hall, Samuel Powers, 

Nathaniel Wheeler, Elijah Darling, 

Charles Cutting, Sibley Melendy, 

Levi Winter, Abijah Dunbar. 
Isaac Cooper, 

THE IlEBELLI03Sr_ 

The following is an imperfect list of those citizens who served in the 
United States Army during the Rebellion : 

Chaplain, Robert Stinson, 

" Anthony C. Hardy. 
Captain, John W. Putnam, 

" E. Darwin Comings. 
Lieutenant, Paine Durkee, 

" Albert Miner, wounded at Fair Oaks. 
Sergeant, Oscar D. Allen, wounded at Antietam, killed at Gettysburg. 
" Lloyd D. Forehand, wounded at Fair Oaks, 
" John Blanchard, wounded, 
" Hiram K. Darling, 
" William D. Angell, died in the service. 
Corporal, George E. Frye, killed at Chancellorsville, 
" Alvah K. Davis, 
" Henry H. Haynes, 
" Irving D. Tobie, 
" Ephraim Plimpton. 
Privates, Alonzo Allen, wounded at Fair Oaks, 

Thomas Ames, died in service, 

George Angell, Jr., 

Sanford T. Barton, wounded at Fair Oaks, 

Henry Barton, killed in battle, 

Frederick J. Burge, 

William Bushy, 

Charles Baggatt, 

Charles L. Bryant, 

Rufus W. Clark, 

Alonzo C. Crooker, 

John Cabner, 

James P. Darling, wounded, 

Warren K. Darling, 

Walter Darling, 



161 

Privates, George S. Davis, died, 
Robert Dinsmore, 
Leroy Forehand, 
Stephen G. Ford, 
George H. Goodhue, 
Jeremiah H. Haynes, 
Charles C. Howard, wounded, 
Franklin J. Hersey, killed at Fair Oaks, 
Philip Harding, killed at 2d Bull Run battle, 
Edward Hall, 
Hiram C. Hall, 
Charles N. Harridon, 
Heman Jacobs, 
Ambrose Jerome, 
Charles K. Jackson, died, 
John A. Johnson, 

W. Wallace Kidder, ^ 

Thomas Mack, 
Abraham Nutting, 

Elias F. Powers, died at Poolsville, Md., Feb. 17, 1863, 
Charles S. Patridge, 
Theodore H. Payne, 
Nathan Peyton, 
Isaac P. Rawson, 
George H. Ross, 
Albert F. Robbins, 
John Riley, 

Henry H. Stockwell, killed at Fair Oaks, 
John G. Stockwell, died at Harper's Ferry, 
Henry H. Squires, 

Charles L. Stockwell, mortally wounded, 
George N. Smith, 
George Tasker, 

Austin L. Whipple, died in service, 
Emille Warren, died at Andersonville, Ga. 

Note. — A few of the above were substitutes, and not actual citizens of 
the town. Twenty-five of them enlisted in the early part of the war, and 
received but ten dollars bounty. They were all volunteers. The highest 
bounty paid by the town was $100 per year. No citizen of Croydon is 
known to have deserted from the army during the war. Many of them 
re-enlisted and served two terms. 



162 

The following are a few of the many natives of Croydon who enlisted 
from other places during the war : 

Joseph Sargent, Chaplain, died in the service, 

Ira W. Bragg, Naval Surgeon, died in the service. 

Sherman Cooper, Surgeon. 

David C. Powers, Surgeon. 

Marshall Perkins, Assistant Surgeon. 

Willard 0. Hurd, Assistant Surgeon. 

Willard C. Kempton, Assistant Surgeon. 

Walter Forehand, Captain. 

Edward Dow, Lieutenant of Sharp Shooters. 

"Walter P. Blancha^d, Sergeant. 

Leonard Barton, mortally wounded in battle. 

Peter Barton. 

Hiram E. W. Barton. 

Jldward W. Collins, Jr., wounded at 1st Bull Run battle. 

David R. Eastman. 

Marshall P. Hurd, killed at Antietam. 

Henry Humphry, died in the service. 

Orren Marsh. 

Simeon Patridge. 

Dexter Stewart. 

Stephen M. Thornton. 

John Thornton. 

George H. Thornton, died in the service. 

Horace P. Hall. 



Congregational. — The first church in Croydon was Presbyterian. It 
was organized Sept 9, 1778. The following are the names of its members : 
Moses Whipple, Stephen Powers, Isaac Sanger, John Cooper, Joseph Hall, 
Jacob Leland, John Sanger, Catherine Whipple, Rachel Powers, Mary 
Cooper, Anna Leland, Lydia Hall, Hannah Giles and Lucy Whipple. 
The first meeting-house was built in 1794. It was taken down and con- 
verted into a Town Hall in 1828. The present church was erected in 1826. 
Rev. Jacob Haven, the first minister, was settled June 18, 1787. He was 
minister of the town and church until Nov. 5, 1805, when he became min- 
ister of the church only. He retired Jan. 6, 1834. Rev. Eli Taylor was 
installed pastor in his stead June 10, 1834 and was dismissed Dec. 27, 
1837. Aurelius S. Swift was ordained May 16, 1838, and left in 1841. 



163 

Freewill Baptist. — In 1810, some thirty individuals united and form- 
ed a Freewill Baptist church, with Elijah Watson as Elder ; Eli Davis and 
David Putnam were appointed deacons. It continued to flourish for some 
time. At length, it was given up and a larger portion of its members 
united with a then flourishing church at Northville, in Newport. 

Univeesalist. — In 1832, a Universalist society was formed comprising 
some fifty members. Their meetings were held in the town hall, until 1854, 
when Paul Jacobs, Es(|., built them a house of worship at the Flat. 

Calvinist Baptist. — Many individuals of this town have connected 
themselves with the Calvinist Baptist society at Newport Village. 

Methodist. — Itinerant preachers of the Methodist order had frequently 
lectured in town and formed classes, but it was not until 1853 that a 
church was formed. At that time a society, comprising some thirty-six 
members, was organized with C. H. Lovejoy as preacher. In 1854, they 
erected their meeting-house at the East Village, in which their services 
are now held. 

Revivals. — In 1810 there was an extensive revival in town, during 
which some one hundred and twenty individuals professed the Christian 
faith. In 1835 a protracted meeting was held, under the direction of 
Rev. Joseph Merrill of Acworth, and some seventy persons acknowledged 
a change of heart. 

SEOBSSION". 

In 1778 a number of towns on the east side of Connecticut River re- 
nounced their allegiance to New Hampshire, and formed a connection with 
the new State of Vermont. This led to a long and heated contention be- 
tween the seceding towns and the government to which they formerly 
belonged. In the incipient stages of the controversy, Croydon took no part ; 
but when, towards the close of the year, a convention of delegates assembled 
at Cornish, Moses Whipple, Esq., was appointed a delegate by -this town. 
From that time until quiet was restored, the proceedings of Croydon were 
identified with the eccentric movements of the revolted district. In 1782, 
Moses Whipple, Esq., was chosen to represent this town in the Vermont 
Legislature. But, before his arrival at the seat of government, the Ver- 
mont Assembly, brought to their senses by a letter from General Washing- 
ton, had resolved that the western bank of the Connecticut river should 
be the dividing line between Vermont and New Hampf3hire ; so that Whip- 
ple and the other delegates from the eastern side of the river, on their 
arrival, found themselves excluded from a seat in the Assembly. This step 
of the Legislature tended to close the controversy. The disaffected towns 
returned to their allegiance, and domestic quiet was restored. 



164 

List of Representatives, from 1800 to 1866, inclusive 



1800, Benjamin Barton, 


1823, Abijah Powers, 


1845, Lemuel P. Cooper, 


1801, Samuel Powers, 


1824, Amasa Hall, 


1846, Pmel Durkee, 


1802, 


1825, 


1847, 


1803, Benjamin Barton, 


1826, Carlton Barton, 


1848, Lester Blanchard, 


1804, Samuel Powers, 


1827, Briant Brown, 


1849, 


1805, 


1828, 


1850, none. 


1806, 


1829, Zina Goldthwait, 


1851, Pliny Hall, 


1807, " 


1830, Ciu-lton Barton, 


1852, 


1808, « 


1831, Paul Jacobs, 


1853, Alfred Ward, 


1809, Peter Stow, 


1832^ Hiram Smart,* 


1854, " 


1810, James Brack, 


1833, Zina Goldthwait, 


1855, Freeman Crosby, 


1811, 


1834, Samuel Morse, 


1856, Wm. M. Whipple, 


1812, Samuel Goldthwait, 


1835, Paul Jacobs, 


1857, Martin A. Barton, 


1813, James Breck, 


1836, Alexander Barton, 


1858, Freeman Crosby, 


1814, 


1837, 


1859. no choice. 


1815, Obed Metcalf, 


1838, Joseph Eastman, 


1860, 


1816, Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr. 


, 1839, 


1861, Paine Durkee, 


1817, Stephen Eastman, 


1840, John Putnam, 


1862, Daniel R. Hall, 


1818, 


1S41, Calvin Hall, 


1863, 


1819, " 


1842, none. 


1864, Denison Humphry, 


1820, Abijah Powers, 


1843, Alexander Barton, 


1865, " 


1821, 


1844, Lemuel P. Cooper, 


1866, Worthen Hall. 


1822, Obed Metcalf, 







Note. — Prior to 1800, Croydon was classed with other towns in the 
choice of Representatives. Benjamin Barton was chosen in 1795, and 
Edward Hall, Jr., in 1797. 



The following is an imperfect list of those who have been called to 
towns, and who received their political training in 



represent other 

Croydon : 

Solomon Clement, 
Orra C. Howard, 
Ara;«a Hall, 
Adolphus Hall, 
AVilliam Melendy, 
Jamea Breck, 
John B. Stowell, 
James Hall, 
Zina Goldthwait, 
Edmund Wheeler, 
Levi W. Barton, 
Paul J. Wheeler, 
Henry Breck, 
Orlando Powers, 
Horace Powers, 
John L. Marsh, 



Springfield, N. H. 

Grantham, " 

Springfield, " 
Newport, " 



Cornish, " 



Morristown, Vt. 
Jefferson Co., N. Y. 



Moses Humplu-y, 
Aaron Barton, 
Hiram Smart, Jr.. 
Orra Crosby, 
Luther J. Fletcher, 
Joshua B. Merrill, 
Sherburne Merrill, 
Alvin Sargent, 
Charles Rowell, 
John Ferrin, 
Harrison Ferrin, 
Nathaniel Cooper, 
Alexander Barton, 
Jonas C. Kempton, 
James W. Putnam, 



Concord, N. H. 
Piermont, " 
Plaistow, " 
Hardwick, \t. 
Lowell, Mass. 
Barnstead, N. H. 
Colebrook, " 
Sanborn to n, " 
Allenstown, " 
Morristown, Vt. 

Leon, N. Y. 

Ludlow, Vt. 
Nashua, N. H. 
Dan vers, Mass. 



The following is a list of the Selectmen of Croydon, from 1768 to 1866, 
inclusive: 



Moses Leland, 
1768 Moses Whipple, 

David Warren. 

Moses Leland, 
1769 Moses Whipple, 

Stephen Powers. 

Isaac Sanger, 
1770 Moses Whipple, 

Stephen Powers. 



Moses Whipple, 
1771 Stephen Powers, 

David Warren. 

John Cooper, 
1772 Moses Whipple, 

Stephen Powers. 

John Cooper, 
1773 Moses Whipple, 

Benjamin Swinnerton. 



165 



Moses Whipple, 

1774 John Cooper, 

Stephen Powers. 
Moses Whipple, 

1775 Stephen Powers, 

Phineas Sanger. 
John Cooper, 

1776 Moses Whipple, 

Benjamin Swinnerton. 
Moses Whipple, 

1777 Stephen Powers, 

Phineas Sanger. 
Stephen Powers, 

1778 Benjamin Swinnerton, 

Joseph Hall. 
Moses Whipple, 

1779 John Cooper, 

Stephen Powers. 
Moses Whipple, 

17S0 John Powers, 

Benjamin Powers. 
Stephen Powers, 

1781 Phineas Sanger, 

David Putnam. 
John Cooper, 

17S2 Moses Whipple, 

Stephen Powers. 
Edward Hall, 

1785 Stephen Powers, 

Phineas Sanger. 
John Cooper 

1786 Edward Hall, 

Moses Whipple. 
Stephen Powers, 

1787 Benjamin Barton, 

Simeon Partridge. 
Benjamin Barton, 

1788 Jesse Green, 

David Putnam. 
John Cooper, 

1789 Benjamin Powers, 

Ezra Cooper. 

Benjamin Barton, 

1790 Abijah Hall, 

John Cooper, Jr. 
Benjamin Barton, 

1791 David Putnam, 

John Cooper. 
Benjamin Barton, 

1792 David Putnam, 

Samuel Powers. 
Benjamin Barton, 

1793 David Putnam, 

Samuel Powers. 
Benjamin Barton, 

179-t John Cooper, Jr., 

Nathaniel Wheeler. 
Benjamin Barton, 

1795 John Cooper, Jr., 

David Putnam. 
Benjamin Barton, 

1896 Tliomas Whipple, 

David Putmim. 
Samuel Powers, 

1797 Simeon Partridge, 

Peter Stow. 



Benjamin Barton, 
1798 John Cooper, Jr., 

Thomas Whipple. 

Benjamin Barton, 
1799 Samuel Powers, 

Simeon Partridge. 

Benjamin Barton, 
1800 John Cooper, Jr., 

Samuel Powers. 

John Cooper, Jr., 
1801 Peter Barton, 

John Nelson. 

Benjamin Barton, 
1802 Peter Barton, 

John Nelson. 

Samuel Powers, 

1S03 Peter Stow, 

Peter Barton. 
Peter Stow, 

1804 Peter Barton, 

Barnabas Cooper. 
Peter Stow, 

1805 Samuel Goldthwait, 

Peter Barton. 
Benjamin Barton, 

1806 John Nelson. 

Stephen Eastman. 
Peter Stow, 

1807 Obed Metcalf, 

Stephen Eastman. 
Peter Stow, 

1808 John Cooper, 

Asaph Stow. 
John Cooper, 

1809 .Tames Breck, 

Asaph Stow. 
John Cooper, 

1810 James Breck, 

Stephen Eastman. 
James Breck, 

1811 Stephen Eastman, 

John Humphry. 
James Breck, 

1812 Stephen Eastman, 

Abijah Powers. 
Benjamin Barton, 

1813 Stephen Eastman, 

Abijah Powers. 
John Humphry, 

1814 Obed Metcalf, 

Solomon Clement. 
James Breck, 

1815 Benjamin Barton, 

Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr. 
Benjamin Barton, 

1816 Obed Metcalf, 

Stephen Eastman. 
Stephen Eastman, 

1817 Abijah Powers, 

Ezra Gustin. 
John Humphry, 

1818 Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., 

Elisha Partridge. 
Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., 

1819 Edward Putnam, 

Ziua Goldthwait. 



166 



Stephen Eastman, 
1820 Nathaniel Wheekr, Jr., 

Henry Breck. 

Nathaniel Wheeler, 
1821 .Tolin Humphry, 

Obed Metcalf. 

Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., 
1822 John Humphry, 

Obed Metcalf. 

Stephen Eastman, 
1823 Samuel Morse, 

Edward Hall. 

Stephen Eastman, 
1824 Abijah Powers, 

Edward Hall. 

Abijah Potvers, 
1825 Stephen Eastman, 

Carlton Barton. 

N.athaniel Wheeler, Jr., 
1826 Ziua Goldthwait, 

David Whipple. 

Abijah Powers, 
1827 Carlton Barton, 

Edward Hall. 

Abijah Powers, 
1828 Carlton Barton, 

Hiram Smart. 

Carlton Barton, 
1829 Benjamin Barton, 

John Barton. 

Hiram Smart, 
1830 Briaut Brown, 

John Barton. 

Hiram Smart, 
1831 Carlton Barton, 

Moses Eastman. 

Carlton Barton, 
1832 Paul Jacobs, 

Ziua Goldthwait. 

Hiram Smart, 
1833 James Hall, Jr., 

Lemuel P. Cooper. 

Hiram Smart, 
1834 Zina Goldthwait, 

Moses Eastman. 

Henry Breck, 
1835 Zina Goldthwait, 

Moses Eastman. 

Carlton Barton, 
18-36 Lemuel P. Cooper, 

Calvin Hall. 

Lemuel P. Cooper, 
1837 Calvin Hall, 

John Putnam. 

Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., 
1838 John Putnam, 

Sherburne B. Rowell. 

Lemuel P. Cooper, 
1839 Calvin Hall, 

Peter Barton. 

Calvin Hall, 
1840 William C. Carroll, 

Sherburne B. Kowell. 

Hiram Smart, 
1841 Ruel Durkee, 

Calvin Kempton. 



William C. Carroll, 
1842 Ruel Durkee, 

Freeman Crosby. 

Hiram Smart, 
1843 Lemuel P. Cooper, 

John C. Loverin. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1844 John C. Loverin, 

Timothy G. Powers. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1845 Timothy G. Powers, 

William Darling. 

John Putnam, 
1846 Josiah Ide, 

Moses Haven. 

Timothy G. Powers, 
1847 Moses Haven, 

Ariel Hall. 

Lemuel P. Cooper, 
1848 John Putnam, 

Martin A. Barton. 

Ruel Durkee, 
ISi^ Paul J. Wheeler, 

Edmund Rowell. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1850 Dellevan D. Marsh, 

Denison Humphry. 

Martin A. Barton, 
1851 Ruel Durkee, 

Paine Durkee. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1852 Dellavan D. Marsh, 

Hiram C. Brown. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1853 Hiram C. Brown, 

Lemuel P. Cooper. 

John Putnam, 
1854 Dellavan D. Marsh, 

Caleb L. Barton. 

Daniel R. Hall, 
1855 Otis Cooper, 

Elias Powers. 

Hiram C. Brown, 
1856 E. Darwin Comings, 

Martin C. Bartlett. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1857 Martin C. Bartlett, 

Welcome P. Patridge. 

E. Darwin Comings, 
1858 Dellavan D. Marsh, 

Albert G. Biu-ton. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1859 Nathaniel P. Stevens, 

Hiram P. Kempton. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1860 Nathaniel P. Stevens, 

Hiram P. Kempton. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1861 John W. Putnam, 

Martin C. Bartlett. 

Ruel Durkee, 
1862 Nathan Hall, 

David E. Ryder. 

Ruel Durkee. 
1863 Nathan Hall, 

AVilliam W. Hall. 



167 



Ruel Durkee, 
1864 William W. Hall, 

Daniel Ide. , 

Ruel Durkee, 
1865 William W. Hall, 

Elias Powers. 



Ruel Durkee, 

1866 Elias Powers, 

Oliver C. Forehand. 



The following is a list of Town Clerks, from 1768 to 1866, inclusive : 



1768, Moses Whipple, 

1769, " ' 

1770, " 
1771, 
1772, 
177.3, 
1774, 
177q. 
1776, 
1777, 
1778, 
1779, 
1780. 



John Cooper, 
Moses Whipple, 



1782* I ^'^ town Records. 
Stephen Powers, 



1 

1783, 
1784, 
1785, 
1786, 
1787, 
1788, 
1789, 
1790, 
1791, 
1792, 
1793, 
1794, 
1795, 
1796, 
1797, 
1798, 
1799, 
1800. 



Jesse Green, 



Jacob Haven, 



Reuben Carroll, 



1801, Reuben Carroll, 

1802, 

1803, " 

1804, 

1805, Benjamin Barton, 

1806, Reuben Carroll, 

1807, Jacob Haven, 
1808, 

1809, 

1810, 

1811, 

1812, « 

1813, 

1814, " 

1815, Stephen Eastman, 

1816, Jacob Haven, 
1817, 

1818, 

1819, « 

1820, » 

1821, « 
1822, 

1823, 

1824, " 

1825, «' 

1826, « 

1827, " 

1828, " 
1829, 

1830, « 
1831, 

1832, " 

1833, " 



1834, 
1835, 
1836, 
1837, 
1838, 
1839, 
1840, 
1841, 
1842, 
1843, 
1844, 
1845, 
1846, 
1847, 
1848, 
1849, 
1850, 
1851, 
1852, 
1853, 
1854, 
1855, 
1856, 
1857, 
1858, 
1859, 
1860, 
1861, 
1862, 
1863, 
1864, 
1865, 
1866, 



Jacob Haven, 
Benjamin Skinner, 

Daniel R. Hall, 



Nathan Hall, 



Daniel R. Hall, 
Dellavan D. Marsh, 

Nathan Hall, 
Dellavan D. Marsh, 
Alonzo Allen. 



OTJSTICES OF GiXJORTTlv^, 



Benjamin Barton, Jr., 
Lemuel P. Cooper, 



John Cooper, 
Daniel R. Hall, 



Paul Jacobs, 
Abijah Powers. 



JXJSTIOES GF THE I>E,A.CE- 



Benjamin Barton, 
John Barton, 
Martin A. Barton, 
Solomon Clement, 
Isaac Cooper, 
Otis Cooper, 
John Cragin, 
Ruel Durkee, 
Paine Durkee, 
William Dodge, 



Stephen Eastman, 
Joseph Eastman, 
Lyman Hall, 
Nathan Hall, 
Worthen Hall, 
Henry Hurd, 
Samuel Morse, 
Dellavan D. Marshj 
Stephen Powers, 
Elias PowerSj 



John W. Putnam, 
Sherburne B. Rowell, 
Benjamin Skinner, 
Hiram Smart, 
Allen Town, 
Moses Whipple, 
Nathaniel Wheeler, Jr., 
Paul J. Wheeler, 
Wm. M. Whipple. 



168 



Croydon has furnished to the militia the following Officers : Major 
General Nathan Emery. Colonels — Jarvis Adams, Otis Cooper, Freeman 
Dunbar, Daniel R. Hall, Calvin Kempton, Samuel Powers, Nathaniel 
Wheeler, Jr., and Moses Whipple. Majors — Abijah Powers, Peter Stow, 
Lemuel P. Cooper. 

Population. — The population of Croydon at different periods was as 
follows: In 1765, 143; 1790,537; 1800,984; 1810, 863 ; 1820, 1060; 1830, 
1057 ; 1840, 956; 1850, 861 ; 1860, 765. 



Valuation.— 1864, $264,931. 

Table showing the annual number of births in Croydon, from 1790 to 
1800, inclusive : 



Years. Male. Female. Total. Years. Male. Female. Total. Years. Male. Female. Total. 



1790 
1791 
1792 
1793 



20 


13 


33 


1794 


17 


17 


34 


1798 


26 


18 


15 


19 


34 


1795 


21 


25 


46 


1799 


16 


16 


21 


14 


35 


11796 


26 


15 


41 


1800 


18 


16 


21 


12 


33 


Il797 


24 


21 


45 









44 
32 
34 



Total, 



225 



Remarks. — The first birth in Croydon occurred May 13, 1767. It was 
of Catherine, daughter of Moses Whipple, Esq. The second was of Joshua, 
son of Seth Chase, born October 29, 1767. The probable number of births, 
from 1790 to 1851, inclusive, is nearly twenty-five hundred, of which more 
than half were of males. 



169 



biIjL of i^oh.t-a.lix'S' foe. cuo'sriDOKr. 

The following table exhibits the annual number of deaths, commencing 
January 1, 1790, and ending January 1, 1867. Average deaths one to 
seventy-five. 



Yi-R. Chiltl'n. Adults. Total. Yrs. Child'n. Adults. Total. Yrs. Child'n. Adults. Total. 

7 
12 



1790 

1791 
1792 
1793 
1794 
1795 
1796 
1797 
1798 
1799 
1800 
1801 
1802 
1803 
1804 
1805 
1806 
1807 
1808 
1809 
1810 
1811 
1812 
1813 
1814 
1815 



7 


1 


8 


1816 


9 


3 


12 


4 


2 


6 


1817 


4 


4 


8 


4 


2 


6 


1818 


5 


4 


9 


3 


6 


9 


1819 


13 


6 


19 


10 


1 


11 


1820 


10 


6 


16 


23 


1 


24 


1821 


6 


4 


10 


11 


3 


14 


1822 


10 


12 


22 


4 


4 


8 


1823 


4 


3 


7 


8 


1 


9 


1824 


2 


8 


10 


2 


6 


8 


1825 


7 


9 


16 


6 


1 


7 


1826 


8 


8 


16 


4 


3 


7 


1827 


17 


4 


21 


5 


5 


10 


1828 


2 


7 


9 


14 


5 


19 


1829 


4 


7 


11 


10 


4 


14 


1830 


5 


2 


7 


6 


5 


11 


1831 


4 


15 


19 


14 


6 


20 


1832 


19 


9 


28 


11 


6 


17 


1833 


2 


10 


12 


12 


5 


17 


1834 


10 


8 


18 


4 


5 


9 


1835 


4 


9 


13 


7 


3 


10 


1836 


4 


5 


9 


5 


5 


10 


1837 


3 


7 


10 


6 


4 


10 


1838 


8 


7 


15 


12 


18 


30 


1839 


5 


10 


15 


3 


2 


5 


1840 


16 


12 


28 


5 


6 


11 


1841 


4 


12 


16 



1842 
1843 
1844 
1845 
1846 
1847 
1848 
1849 
1850 
1851 
1852 
1853 
1854 
1855 
1856 
1857 
1858 
1859 
1860 
1861 
1862 
1863 
1864 
1865 
1866 

Total, 



1 


6 


1 


11 





2 


1 


4 


5 


8 


7 


10 


6 


8 


7 


7 


1 


11 


1 


6 


1 


6 


Cf 





5 


12 


1 


12 


5 


7 





7 


15 


9 


3 


13 


2 


6 


3 


7 





12 


4 


12 





11 


3 


14 


2 


3 


461 


511 



5 

13 

17 

14 

14 

12 

7 

7 

8 

17 
13 
12 
7 
24 
16 
8 
10 
12 
IH 
11 
17 



Longevity. — An incomplete list of the names of those who have 
attained to ninety years and over : 



Widow Marsh, 
Mrs. Benjamin Cutting, 
Widow Clement, 
Mrs. Jotliam Ryder, 
Samuel Metcalf, 



90 Widow Giles, 

90 Samuel Marsh, 

93 Widow A. Stockwcll, 

94 Capt. Nathan Clark, 
93 



9-t Thomas Blanchard, 

94 Widow Rumble, 

95 Samuel Goldthwait, 
90 Lydia Leland Powers, 



100 
93 



Education. — Early, the wife of Moses Whipple, an intelligent and 
worthy lady, called the children of the first settlers to her house, and for 
years taught them without charge. The first school-house, a small struct- 
ure twenty feet square, was built in 1772, and eight pounds was raised for 
purposes of education. The second district was formed in 1780, and one 
hundred and fifty dollars assessed for school purposes. From the begin- 
ning, Croydon has paid due attention to mental culture. 



170 

LiBKARY. — The " Croydon Social Library" was established in 1806. It 
contained many standard works of great merit. They were mainly select- 
ed by the Rev. Jacob Haven, who was, for a long time, librarian. This 
library has had a decided influence in moulding the character of the young 
men of the town. The inhabitants of Croydon have been a reading people. 

Casualties. — In 1770, Caleb, son of Seth Chase, the first settler in town, 
wandered into the forest and was lost. The mother, rendered frantic by 
the loss of her son, had she not been prevented, would have rushed into 
the trackless forest and been lost. On the morrow all the inhabitants 
turned out and searched the woods through and through, but no trace of 
the darling boy could ever be found. 

Isaac Sanger and one of the other early settlers of the town, perished 
while attempting to cross Croydon Mountain. 

Alexander Metcalf, son of Alexander Metcalf, senior, was killed by the 
falling of a tree. He was to have been married the next day to a lady in 
Franklin. 

Abijah Hall was drowned at the " Glidden Bridge" in 1812. -A son of 
Thomas Whipple and a son of Giles Stockwell, senior, were drowned in 
Spectacle Pond. 

On the 19th of April, 1828, the dwelling of Mr. Charles Carroll was con- 
sumed by fire and two children perished in the flames. 

Dr. Reuben Carroll was thrown from a gig, in 1840, while going down 
the hill between Four Corners and the East Village, and killed. 

Son of Nathaniel W. Brown was killed near the Bridge at the East Vil- 
lage, in 1863, by the horse stumbling and falling upon him. 

In 1846, wife of Paul J. Wheeler met a terrible death by burning — her 
clothes taking fire as she stood warming herself before the stove. 

Mr. Cummings, an old gentleman, went out from the Flat towards Coit 
Mountain, and the next day was found dead. 

A son of Simeon Ames fell from a load of hay upon the handle of apitcli- 
fork which penetrated his body, from which accident he soon after died a 
most painful death. 

Son of Ira Bragg fell from the cart-tongue while riding, and the w^eel 
running over him killed him instantly. Another son was supposed to be 
murdered. He went West with money to buy a farm, a man went out with 
him to show him his land, and neither of them ever returned. 

Ziba, son of John Cooper, was killed by the kick of a horse which he was 
driving to tread out clover seed. 

A daughter of Foster Hall fell into the river, at the East Village, and 
was drowned. 



171 

A child of Rev. Jacob Haven was scalded to death by falling backwards 
into a pail of hot water. 

Asa Kelsey, residing in the south-east corner of the town, fell from a . 
building and was killed. 

A son of Leonard N. Kempton was drowned in the mill-pond at the 
,Flat. 

Son of John Melendy was killed by the falling of the stone chimney of 
his father's dwelling. 

A daughter of Robert Osburn, in the north-east corner of the town, fell 
into a brook, was carried under the causeway and drowned. 

A son of James Perkins was drowned by falling into the brook near his 
father's dwelling at the Flat. 

A son of Ezekiel Powers was caught between two logs, while peeling 
bark, and crushed to death. 

Willard, son of Urias Powers, fell from the " Glidden Bridge" while on 
his way from school and was drowned. 

A son of Jotham Ryder was killed "by a cart-body blowing over and fall- 
ing upon him. 

Wife of David Rowell killed by lightning. Her infant sleeping on her 
arm escaped uninjured and lived to manhood. 

Joseph Smart went out to catch his horse one Sabbath morning, was 
soon after found dead. 

Griswould, son of Aaron Whipple, killed by running under an axe 
which was thrown from the frame of the house, at the raising. 

In 1861, Edwin, son of Moses Whipple, while returning from the Post- 
office, at the Flat, one dark, rainy night, the string-piece being jarred in 
towards the middle of the bridge, walked off and met a sad death amid the 
rocks and angry waves below. 

Epidemics. — In 1795, the "Canker Rash" prevailed to an alarming 
extent among the children. Of twenty-four deaths that year, twenty were 
under fourteen years of age. In 1813, the " Spotted Fever" made its appear- 
ance in a most malignant form, defying all remedies and cutting down the 
strong men almost without warning. Of thirty deaths in town that year, 
eighteen were from that disease. 

Four Cornees. — Being in the center of the town and on the Croydon 
Turnpike the great thoroughfare, and having a church, tavern, store, and 
offices and shops, the Four Corners was once the center of trade; but rail- 
roads diverting the long travel, and the want of water power, has caused 
its decline. 



172 

A Wolf Stoby. — Benj. Cutting, a poor man, away after provisions, was 
detained over night and the next day. The wife and children were nearly 
famished, with nothing in the house to eat. She waited until the shades of 
evening approached, and still he came not. She then went down to the 
nearest neighbors to beg something that should keep them from starvation- 
She had hardly reached the house when she heard the wolves, and 
thought of her two little ones at home. She started, and impelled by all the 
ardor of a mother's love Hew towards home. A pack of hungry wolves 
were after her. She was barely able to reach the door, rush in and slam 
it in the face of her enemy. She secured the door. They mounted 
the roof, which was covered with bark. There was no chimney, and she 
expected every moment they would come down through the open space 
through which the smoke escaped. She caught the poker and stirred the 
fire with such violence as to fill the space with sparks and flames. The 
terrible howling and biting of the wolves made the night hideous. "When 
one of them showed his teeth through an open space in the roof, she would 
greet it with the burning poker. If they grew desperate she would throw 
on the contents of her straw bed and thus increase the flames. The con- 
test was kept up until the straw and wood were nearly exhausted, when 
the wolves, despairing of success, beat up a retreat and left our heroine 
mistress of the field. 



Amos Hagar, a man of great p)hysical strength, once going through the 
woods on the east part of the Wheeler farm, met a bear and threw a hem- 
lock knot at it with such violence as to knock it over and enable him 
to capture it. 



Anecdote. — In April, 1766, the party which came to Croydon for the 
purpose of laying out land, discovered, soon after crossing Sugar River, 
in Claremont, that the plan of the town had been left behind. As the 
river, swollen by rain and melted snow, was unfordable, and as the impet- 
uous current had already borne their temporary raft beyond their reach, 
they hardly knew what course to take. At length, Ezekiel Powers crossed 
and re-crossed the river by swimming, bringing the parchment between 
his teeth. For this feat the company paid him a pistareen. 



Pear Teee. — A pear tree, brought to town by Dea. Nathaniel Wheeler 
ninety- one years ago, now over one hundred years old, is still alive and in 
a good bearing condition. 



173 

Bear Story. — A bear once took a hog from a yard near what is known 
as the Peter Barton place. The neighbors gave chase, but they were a 
mile away before they were overtaken. The hog was so lacerated it was 
necessary to kill it. When dressed its weight was found to be two hun- 
dred pounds. This feat exhibits the strength of the bear. 

Dairies. — Croydon Dairies have long ranked among the finest in market. 

Negroes. — Early in the history of the town a colony of negroes planted 
themselves on Coit Mountain and its eastern vicinity. Among them were 
Salem Colby, Kobert Nott and Scipio Page. They have long since disap- 
peared. 









i:;»ii»/^iJtj>Mitoiif 



